TellTale Hearts
by helebette
Summary: Regina/Emma, Remma. Swan Queen femslash. Regina has broken rules that the fates must now fix.
1. Chapter 1

**Tell-tale Hearts.**

**Past: **

**An Older Land…**

There is wind all around them, just as there has been for days. The castle can no longer be seen and the townspeople are far behind. A storm kicks up water and dirt and dust, and it takes all of their strength to protect their son from something in the darkness that tries to tear him apart.

The Queen and her Knight look at one another, nod in unspoken agreement, and cross their swords in front of the small boy. He is old enough to know that they all might die, but young enough to still believe in the mysterious powers of his parents.

Long after the battle, the Queen holds her Knight in one arm, while their son grasps the other. There is blood in brilliant patterns over the Knight's skin.

"Kiss her, just do it!" He shouts in the Queen's ear. It is still dark and the Queen wonders if the dead things will come back to snatch them after all.

The Queen obeys somebody else for once, and as her lips press to the Knight's, fire burns a pathway around them…

And the White Knight awakens.

**Present:**

**A Terrible Place…**

Regina's car is her favorite silly toy. She relishes the feel of leather against her bare legs as she climbs into the steel contraption, wearing a pin-stripe skirt and white blouse. Beneath the blouse is a black leather bustier which she hopes to reveal later, to a special someone, perhaps during their morning meeting.

She is nearly at work when Gold calls her on her cell phone.

Cell phones. Regina still wonders what the people of this terrible world is going to do when their precious gadgets are out of order.

"What." Regina barks into the phone. She does not say his name and she certainly does not call him 'Mister'. Gold always does act as though he knows something that Regina doesn't, when it is Regina who holds the most important secrets from him.

Gold mutters in the phone. Regina veers around a sharp corner and curses, putting the phone on speaker and throwing it beside her. "I cannot hear you…" In the distance, something dark is emerging. Regina squints to see it better.

A sand storm appears to be approaching. But that cannot be…

Thankfully, there is a red light which stops Regina in her car, when Gold confirms the worst.

"What have you done?" Regina shouts at him.

On the other line, there is sudden and deafening silence.

**Future:**

**Other Roads…**

There is wind in this world also. Wind and rain and something like ash which falls from the sky.

"How could you Mom?" Henry asks this stupid question often. This time, his tone is not angry, just curious. How could she? How could she not! Regina frowns at him and refuses to speak.

Emma and Mary are nearby. Why? Regina cannot quite remember how they got to this world. They are all wearing rather ugly clothing-khakis and long shirts with leather patches for armor, she supposes.

"There is nothing but us." Emma has thrown away her cell phone and sits down heavily. "There is nothing else. Where the fuck are we Regina?" But there is an odd sort of caring in Emma's voice when she asks the question and Emma just shakes her head. Is she amused by something? "Nevermind. The rest of the people will be here soon." Emma sighs and stretches her back.

Regina shrugs, not remembering what she has done exactly.

She looks around at what is, apparently, their camp site. Emma glances toward a pair of sleeping bags at Regina's feet and then meets Regina's eyes with a frown.

Regina is shocked. Are they sleeping in close confines?

And is Mary actually tolerating Regina? Surely Mary hates her now?

Mary walks confidently past Regina and looks behind her, drawing a gun which she…does *not* shoot Regina with.

Regina's mouth falls open. "Don't you…" She shakes her head. Surely they must all know by now what she has done. Killed Graham? Murdered her own father? Cursed them all and apparently destroyed the entire world? Deprived Emma of parents for many, many years?

"We have work to do Mom." Henry seems to be reading her mind. He blinks and nods at that spare thought. "The past is in the past. There are bigger problems now, and you're thinking much more clearly."

"Yes, I personally blame my daughter for that." Mary quips cheerfully from behind. She is smiling at something-or someone.

Regina realizes that David has emerged from the darkness, followed by well-armed townspeople. They all look to Emma to lead them. Regina sits down heavily on her sleeping bag and awaits instruction.

**Present:**

**Calm before the storm….**

Making deals with tricksters is not always the best course of action, but it also isn't the worst. The deal with tricksters is that they are always unpredictable and predictable simultaneously. They are simple and they are complex. They are neither good nor evil, but a strange mix of both.

Regina knows at least this much, better than anybody. She walks through the town she has created from a land she had cursed long ago.

Regina swings her briefcase as she walks. Her heels are long and thin and she contemplates the effect they will have on her lover, later, when she strips down to nothing but those shoes.

Things are moving along smoothly in her world. Regina has no complaints. There are curious sorts of things which actually go quite well in this new place. Regina has not destroyed everything, she has simply frozen it. In its place.

Regina smiles sedately at the townspeople as they avoid her path. Ruby actually smiles at her, which is strange. Perhaps Regina's occasional dalliance with the waitress has put a spark in the imprisoned woman's life. Regina sleeps with Ruby from time to time to keep the younger woman distracted, occupied, and in her place. Ruby craves adventure so Regina convinces her that adventure is no further than one's own backyard (or restroom, bedroom, and occasional back alleyway).

Imprisoned or not, Regina tries to be true to the character of each person in her town. She knows their memories better than they do and does her best to honor each individual quirk. It is one of the things about Regina which makes her tolerable to all around her-she knows people and will do what she must to make them feel as though they are actually following their own path. Even if, in reality (sort of), they are following hers.

Regina arrives in her office and finds the one person-one of two, really-who is not content to let her lead.

"Ms. Swan." Regina smirks at the blonde woman. "How may I help you?"

Emma sighs and slumps before straightening up again. "It's Sheriff Swan, if you recall, and I'm here for our 9am meeting." Her hands run up and down Regina's sides. "Did you wear it? The leather…"

"Of course." Regina knows that she is being condescending, but it is mostly for show. She swallows hard and pulls her top down so that Emma can see the bustier.

The door closes and Regina finds herself slammed against it, with only Emma's hand to cushion the blow. Their lips press together but Emma's other hand has already found its way up Regina's blouse.

Regina sighs with contentment as she wraps herself around the town's conquering hero.


	2. Chapter 2

**Storybrooke: Phase One.**

"…**and then fire, shot down from the sky in bolts, like shining blades of a knife. And it ripped, right through the flesh, of the children of the sun and moon and the earth…" -'The Origin of Love.' Hedwig and the Angry Inch.**

It is a sunny, warm day in Storybrooke and it is six months before the world ends.

There are no signs of the storm that will soon erase this town's brief existence and usher in a second strange world, much like the first Storybrooke.

There are no signs that the town's leader will soon turn against her own family.

And there are certainly no signs that the town's Mayor is actually an ancient Witch from another age, who has made this whole place up. Her elaborate ruse fools nearly everyone, but the energy it takes for her to keep up the illusion sometimes takes its toll. Mayor Regina Mills has had enough of her Happy Ending. It is not working out. Her one great love has already destroyed their happiness.

Well, there are signs of Regina Mills' limitations. The town's newspaper, for any who had actually lived outside of Storybrooke (only one can say that they have which is also pretty weird) is absurd. Popular music is way behind the times, and the Mayor has banned satellite television and only allows local cable channels to come through their television sets. She says, often, that she is simply protecting Storybrooke from the evils of the outside world.

Emma Swan, the town's Sheriff, walks with her son Henry and they discuss a science lesson about time and space. Emma is also the Mayor's lover. Partner. Whatever. But their relationship is definitely on the rocks.

"Time just is this thing that we can't escape." Henry is explaining to his rather bemused mother. "It just happens to us and we can't change it." This is what he has learned, just the day before, from a science teacher hand-picked by his other mother.

"What about relativity?" Emma jokes. Henry stares at her as though she is a total nut job. "You know, the theory of relativity. And Uncertainty, and Quantum mechanics." She is throwing shit out there that makes even less sense to her, but she doesn't care. "All I know is this: things are sort of…" She searches for a word to explain the one course she took that time when she kind of ended up sleeping with the Professor. "Bendable." She finishes. "And you should always question authority figures, even if they're wearing lab coats."

They grimace as the Mayor drives by and glares at them.

"Your mom is a complicated person." Emma sighs. They stop at the new Thai restaurant and Emma considers their options. "Lunch? Noodles are healthy."

When they go inside, the waiter looks fearful. Emma and Henry exchange bemused looks before they are all interrupted by a whirlwind named Regina.

"I'm double parked." Regina smirks, earning a fantastic roll of the eyes from Emma. "However, I will be lunching with you both."

Emma is 25, and Regina made her Sheriff of Storybrooke only six weeks ago. She leans forward to give her partner a quick kiss and is not surprised to see a flash of anger in Regina's eyes. Regina gives Emma only her cheek which is cool against Emma's lips.

They raise their son Henry as best they can, despite the fact that Emma was only 19 when she and Regina fell in love. Falling in love at 19, with an infant and a large house and all of the comforts needed to live 'Happily Ever After', is, of course, too good to be true.

Emma has already cheated on Regina, and hates herself for it. The make-up sex was great, and Emma has no doubt that this woman is the great love of her life…

…but dammit, finding that one special person at such a young age! Emma is so restless that some days she wants to scream.

Once, Emma even spun a globe around and stuck her finger on Florida.

In fact, in only a short time, not two months after Emma's 26th birthday, Emma will leave.

And Regina will deal away this life in retaliation for its failure to deliver the Happy Ending she had been promised. She makes the decision as she eats lunch with her listless and distracted lover, and their son.

This is a fateful day. The day when Henry and his biological mother discuss Quantum mechanics, while his other mother plots a way to steal him away…

Mr. Gold, the local seller of used and seemingly useless items, sells Regina a pile of stones which she uses to enact the spell.

As always, he does not want money. Instead, he requests of Regina that they discuss Henry, over dinner some night.

"Why?" Regina is suspicious. Emma gave birth to Henry in their own home, and ever since, Gold has behaved rather creepily toward their small family. He always wants to know how the boy is doing, how Emma is handling motherhood…

"In case he is ever lost." Gold explains. He gives her that signature, creepy smile. "I should know where to find him again. For you, of course."

"Of course." Regina smiles demurely. She has already planted the seeds. She will trade this life, start over, and Henry will remain hers. But perhaps…

…perhaps Gold can help.

Regina likes to gamble. She will not leave Henry's life to chance, but she will leave the manor in which he returns to her to chance.

As for Emma, Regina is certain that this spell will erase the wandering young woman from her life. There is bitterness on her tongue when Regina thinks of Emma's dalliances. With Ruby, and with Graham, that silly boy who wanders at the edge of town hunting for his own family. Emma does not know that Regina has also been with them both herself. Emma also does not know how old Storybrooke is, and how long Regina has controlled its fate.

Regina smiles at Gold. He will not, after all, even remember his stupid request. So, she says the magic word:

"Deal."

And when the world is turned over, it is Gold who retrieves Henry for Regina. From Emma, who manages to stay away from Storybrooke for a full ten years after her and Regina's child is born.

**Storybrooke Anew:**

**The second life.**

Regina sits in her office contemplating her Mayoral duties. She scribbles hastily on a post-it (really, one of the best inventions in this terrible new time) and labels a pile of papers listening her plans for monuments throughout town. The launching of statues and benches named after random townspeople, amuses and distracts Regina. She smirks to herself as she brainstorms and decides to commission a concrete statue of a loom, name it for Mr. Gold, and make up a story about Storybrooke's history in the textile industry. The private joke could only be more amusing if she had somebody to share it with.

There are, of course, other things to consider.

But David is now awake, and Regina has kept him from finding out about his connection with Mary.

And with Emma. Emma, who tries so hard to be good. No matter what the price.

Henry has all but given up his strange 'Cobra' mission, it seems. Henry is a bit of a mystery, but Regina is not worried about his relationship with his other mother. She has come and gone from so many places, there is no way she will stay…

Regina sneers into space. Her expression, if somebody were to read it, is a bizarre mix of affection, confusion and anger.

She thinks of Henry.

Henry, it seems, would rather chew on nails than speak to Regina. Things have become much worse between Regina and her son since Emma Swan arrived in town.

Regina ponders her next move with this woman. She has had her arrested and her car booted, but nothing really works to dissuade Emma from staying. And now she has moved in with Mary…

Regina's phone rings. It is Henry. He is home and he isn't leaving. Regina assures Henry that she will pick up a dinner he might be satisfied with, upon her return home. He likes hamburgers from the diner. Grotesque, but Regina will give him this at least…

It is a funny sort of day. Regina grows far too bored with work and leaves early. The sun is shining as she walks to her car. She notes that her blouse is purple today and decides to change it to red tomorrow. So deep, is Regina's boredom…

"Shit!" A woman's voice interrupts Regina's attempts at unlocking her car door. Why she even bothers to lock it is a mystery, but…

"Hey, sorry." The voice again. Regina sighs and looks at her shoes.

"Ms. Swan." Regina finally says, turning around. "Is there a reason for you to be loitering-and swearing-in front of the Mayor's office?"

Emma gives her that look-that closed mouth smile and puppy eyed _look _that makes Regina want to push harder. To say something meaner…

"I tripped. I was just out for a walk." Emma stammers a little. Then she gives that sheepish smile and adds, "I'll just be getting out of your way…"

Regina sneers. "Fine. Unless, of course, you want a ride to the edge of town? I can drive you to the now restored signage and have a car pick you up…"

"No such luck." Emma has the audacity to laugh. She is already past Regina's car and is walking quickly but casually away.

For some reason, Regina asks Emma a stupid question then-something that both reveals and creates a crack in the Mayor's armor.

"Your arrangement with Mary Margaret is going well, I assume?" Regina's words shock them both. Why the fuck does she care? But then…something happens…Regina feels as though somebody has poured ice water down her shirt at the mere thought of Mary…

…of Snow White.

The façade nearly flies away and Regina can feel the pounding heat and white-hot fury.

Snow.

Always Snow.

Regina wants, suddenly, to destroy this world…again.

Perhaps she'll burn the town down this time…burn Snow's house first. Poison Snow and then burn Snow within her own home. But can Snow burn? Snow is made of water. Regina's sight blurs as her thought processes bleed into utter nonsense.

Emma looks disturbed now. She stares at Regina.

A change of tactics is now obviously in order, Regina decides, willing the rage to subside. Something is clearly happening, beyond her control, and yes, yes, a change in tactics. But she will win. Whatever the cost.

"Are you ok?" Emma has noted total fatigue in Regina's features. And general sort of greyness-the Mayor's face is turning grey before Emma's eyes.

Shit.

Emma is quick on her feet, and catches the Mayor as she faints.

It is three days before the blasted fire, and Emma's ascension to the Sheriff's post. And the world will just keep on changing and changing and changing, until even Regina cannot control it's movements any longer.


	3. Chapter 3

**Storybrooke: Parental Responsibilities.**

"…**the last time I saw you, we just split in two. You was lookin' at me, I was lookin' at you…but I could swear by your expression, that the pain down in your soul was the same as the one down in mine…" 'The Origin of Love.' -Hedwig and the Angry Inch.**

For a woman who has solved many of the universe's mysteries, Regina finds herself confused often these days.

In many ways, Henry is the biggest mystery of all.

Regina feeds Henry, she clothes him, cleans up after him when he is sick, changes his sheets, and organizes his days. She is strict and draws boundaries, so that Henry will someday know the control Regina knows.

"Wear a scarf today Henry." She says off handedly as he tries to sneak past her office door.

"Zip your coat." Another similar occurrence. Without looking, Regina knows that there will be rain. Sometimes she thinks she can hear the thunder speaking to her.

One day, Henry slips on the sidewalk and comes home with a bump forming above his left eye. Regina sees this and without a word, she marches into the backyard, stares at the lawn for a moment, and finds a weed-almost as though it had formed at her insistence-which she chews and then slathers over Henry's wound.

"Ewwwww." Henry grimaces but allows this treatment. Really, he has no choice. This is the same woman who used to speak to other mothers about his various bathroom-related habits before she realized that some elements of mothering made her look weak and overly fearful. He used to wet the bed and it took a lot of trust, conversation, and re-learning trust between mother and son before that issue could be resolved.

Regina blinks and nods when Henry glares at her.

Their stand-off continues for a long time. Each trying to crack the mysteries of their caring, their animosity, and their ambivalence.

Regina knows that someday, Henry will be done with her. As surely as all children are done with their parents. And it isn't just because of the spell.

It is the inevitable mystery of time unraveling. Henry's cycles are among those things that Regina cannot control.

Regina watches as Henry flounces off to see his other mother-his _biological mother._ Regina watches them both from afar, and knows that even Emma will have to let go someday.

Regina dreams about Henry almost as often as she dreams about Emma. Henry often shows up on the edges of those dreams in which she is still the Queen. Still wearing the long hair and magically embedded crown. Sometimes, (more lately since, well, since she sort of killed him) Graham shows up also…

_In one dream, Henry yells at Graham to kiss Emma, who is, oddly, asleep at the Queen's feet. _

"_Kiss her!" Henry yells. "Anyone! Just wake her up! Now!"_

In the real world, or whatever Storybrooke is, Regina awakens to Henry's shouts and she runs to his room. He is drenched in sweat and she tries to comfort him.

"It's all your fault." Henry moans as she turns away from Regina. "Dammit Mom! Why did you have to…Why?"

"Henry, don't swear. It's ok." Regina is shocked that Henry is even calling her 'Mom' these days.

Regina is shaken by Henry's increasing nightmares. For the first time in a very very long time, Regina wants advice.

She walks home one day from work and finds herself drifting toward Mary Margaret's. She wonders if Emma is home. But in the end, Regina has to admit that it is not Emma's advice she is currently seeking…

Mary is utterly shocked when Regina sits down at the kitchen island and begins to talk about Henry. It isn't as though they haven't had parent/teacher discussions, and in Mary does recall one incident in which Regina panicked because Henry…well, anyway, it's weird. Mary is totally wierded out, especially since Regina hates her.

Still, Mary tries to help. They drink tea. They discuss a class Mary once gave, on bird houses. Regina promises to make a bird house with Henry. She is so utterly lost and this makes the most sense to her. They sit at that weathered white-washed wooden table and contemplate a whole lot of bullshit which would mean so much more if Regina hadn't created a nightmare for Mary (and Emma, and Henry, and everyone else) in the first place…

Thankfully, Emma returns to get another shirt for her evening shift, and takes Regina off of Mary's hands. Emma and Mary exchange dumbfounded looks as Regina is led upstairs to Emma's room.

"What's going on?" Emma asks, nudging Regina down onto the bed, to sit while Emma dresses. She listens while hopping around to shove one jean leg on, only to find that she can't watch Regina, listen to her rant, and actually dress herself properly. Emma sits beside Regina and tries again.

Regina, seeing that Emma is wearing only a bra and jeans, decides that talking isn't going to help.

Regina says, "Just, be nice for once."

Emma says something like, "Whaaaaa" and makes a face that says that she might throw something again, but the word turns to an "oomph!" as Regina pulls her atop the bed.

"You are the least articulate person I have ever met." Regina states plainly as she undoes Emma's jeans and yanks them down her thighs. "Here." She offers, shoving a hand into Emma's panties. "Let me get you started."

Emma stares down at Regina's almost desperate expression, not at all sure that she wants to be doing this. They should be talking about their child, not…

Well. Emma is really kind of easy when it comes to Regina. Even if it is only their second time doing this…whatever it is.

Still, she pushes Regina away so that they can both undress. Then she feels herself getting so wet, all at once, that she just freezes. Regina spreads her legs and makes herself submissive and then Emma pounces.

"Omigod, I'm such a top for you." Emma mutters, laughing as she climbs between Regina's thighs and rocks her hips back and forth. Regina's hand finds her again and Emma groans. Regina's heels are digging into Emma's hips which ease up so that Emma can cup Regina's center and push one finger inside of her. Regina feels like thick honey and dew and Emma is momentarily distracted before her eyes focus on the deep dark brown eyes of the woman she supposedly hates.

They kiss, clumsily, Regina's free hand tangling in Emma's hair.

It is fast, and Regina is louder than usual, whimpering once or twice, but when they are through, Emma gets the sense that things are calmer now.

"There. Ok?" Emma pats Regina's hip and kisses her chin. "Henry is fine. Everything is fine."

They both know that Emma might be lying, but for a moment, everything is just as Emma says.

That night, Henry finds himself acquiring a new bike which Regina buys on her way back from Mary's. She wheels it into his room and tries not to care when he sighs and shrugs over her gestures.

**Storybrooke:**

**Public Displays of Affection.**

Their displays of anger are beginning to wear thin.

The townspeople are noticing that Regina Mills and Emma Swan actually seem to care about one another.

Even as Regina and Emma shout in public over the improper pruning of trees in the park, people turn away and shrug it off.

Once again, Regina finds a way to win by preying on Emma's bizarrely low self esteem. She says something about Emma failing to see things through. This final jab has so little to do with the maintenance of the town's flora and fauna, that Emma cannot even see beyond the ill logic.

Emma's response is righteous indignation followed very quickly by resignation. Defeat, inevitable, slumps her shoulders and the corners of her mouth deepen in their downward arch. "Look, Regina, I'm doing the best job that I can."

A smirk, and the reply "Don't do any of us any favors," are Emma's rewards.

Regina is close and her breath smells of mints and Emma wonders why it is that she wants so very much to kiss that mouth one moment, and to shut it the hell up the next.

Regina is a mirror with all of Emma's flaws and shortcomings reflected. Or maybe Regina is like a river. Emma finds this idea sexy somehow, and flushes as Regina walks away.

Emma's mind makes up dialogues with Regina. While she tries to sleep, Emma can hear Regina's voice, reciting a litany of her many faults. And all of the times when Emma has tried to come through for people she cared about, only to leave instead, are now memories with Regina's presence somehow superimposed.

Their daily sparring becomes a part of the town's backdrop. Like wallpaper. Emma is already so entrenched here, after such a short time.

Emma notices that Regina's behaviors become more erratic the longer they do this. It is as though Regina is forgetting her animosity toward Emma, or perhaps remembering something else between them instead.

One day, Regina is telling Emma off for trying to spend time with Henry. The next, Regina pawns the kid off on Emma, with instructions to return him by a certain hour. Another day sees Regina publicly humiliate Emma, only to defend Emma before the evening is through.

Emma tries not to be grateful for these small turnarounds, but she can't help it. Sometimes, especially when she rewards Regina's strange kindnesses with sex, Emma feels like a dog that has been kicked but continues to return to its owner's side. Emma leaves in a huff on those nights, because she doesn't want to believe that Regina owns her in any way.

"You can leave through the front door, you know." Regina says on one such night. She is in a good mood.

Laying there, satiated and warm, half clothed beneath the sheets, Regina looks at Emma through hooded eyes. They had fought that day in front of a group of youth who took up space on a sidewalk for longer than Regina found necessary. The fight was technically over a loitering bylaw and its enforcement. Emma wanted to let it go, but Regina wanted to see the youth reprimanded. But when one of the 'loiterers' in question tried to tell Emma off for refusing to arrest him, Regina lectured everyone present about the job that Emma did to protect their town, and the respect owed to her.

Which was weird. And surreal.

"Yeah, that's…ok." Emma fights a yawn and struggles with her t-shirt. "I don't want to, you know…"

"Confuse Henry." Regina says for her. "About what? The fact that his two mothers are doing what a child's parents should do?"

This floors Emma. The shirt is not even over her head and she keeps it stretched and blocking her eyes while she attempts to come to terms with what Regina has said. And was that…actual sadness in Regina's tone?

"Just go." Regina says as the silence extends. "Go." Her tone is more forceful and this time something in Emma snaps.

"No. Fuck." Emma's voice is a mere whisper, but it carries a fury alien to her. "You…I'm…" She stomps-actually stomps-her foot and yanks her shirt down. "I'm tired. I've had a long day Regina, and I want to sleep. I don't want to leave through the front door-it isn't charity to let me do that. And I won't crawl out the window either. I want to sleep…and…I'll take the guest room."

This is Emma's only attack. Threatening to stay. It freeze them both momentarily.

"You'll do no such thing." Regina hisses, but she has already flung the sheets down beside her. "Get in. And let me have some peace and quiet. And quit your…whatever sort of temper tantrum this is." Regina huffs and turns over angrily while Emma gets in beside her.

Emma is wearing nothing but her t-shirt now and considers the clothing situation. Her eyes stray to Regina's back which is tense. She knows that Regina is wearing nothing beneath her green silk top. It would be so easy to start up again…

Emma sighs and stares at the ceiling.

After sometime, with neither woman sleeping, Emma turns carefully onto her side and says, "Hey." She considers touching Regina but thinks better of it for now. "Thank you for today. That was nice."

They sleep for only a few hours and the sun is not yet risen when Emma sneaks out.

And in retaliation for being called 'nice', Regina fires Emma in front of everyone at Granny's.

Emma lets Regina save face by rehiring her an hour later.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Kingdom of the Evil Queen:**

**Past in Present.**

Emma did not have long to think about it all; how time had looped them all back around, so that they were themselves in a future which was also the past…

Emma, standing with Regina, surrounded by the people of Storybrooke who are shouting at them-well, at Regina, really-was trying to figure it all out as she went along.

"What happened to you? To us?" Emma asked. She remembers lifetimes with Regina, mined from the depths of her subconscious, as though the memories have been with her all along as well just out of reach.

"You died. A long time ago. Before all of this…mess…" Regina paused. She waved her hand vaguely at the mess all around them. The mess she caused. And then Regina added, "…and it's taken me a very long time to find you, as a result."

Emma stared at Regina, blinking from time to time. Regina seemed to Emma to be glowing, or to have a strange hue about her. White and silver, intertwining around both.

"I died." Emma whispered. "I'm sorry about that. I meant to return."

Regina swallowed heavily and nodded.

Emma stepped closer.

All around them, the people of Storybrooke closed in, looking as thought they might compete for Regina's head.

"Your sword." Regina said, pulling the silver weapon from behind her back

"My Queen." Emma replied, before turning and blocking Regina from the approaching mob.

**Storybrooke: **

**How the end begins.**

If Regina thought back to the first time she felt attracted to Emma Swan, she could come uncomfortably close to admitting that it was upon their first meeting.

Whatever confusion there may have been, whatever fear, Regina found her eyes trailing up and down another woman's form. That first time, on the front of Regina's walkway, Emma Swan became the first woman to shatter Regina's long-held notion that happy endings could only happen with a man.

And then fainted, right beside her car on day, and Emma caught her and Regina began to dream in ways that begin to change the course of her own terrible path. Regina dreamt while she was out cold.

"_Did you think you would escape me?" A figure drenched in shadows and something else… own death which echoes in the stranger's words. A feminine voice. A sword catches light and flashes beside them both. It is Emma. Here to kill Regina for all that she has done."Did you think…" Emma reaches with one hand. There is no more sword."…that I could get away?" Regina no longer feels fear. She is still uncertain. Even as the stranger's lips hover near her neck, even as they press, warm and sure._When Regina came to, it was late in the evening.

And Emma was there, by her side.

Regina's first thought was that she had promised Henry dinner. Regina surreptitiously checked her outfit. Nothing out of place.

"Ms. Swan…" Regina poured acid into her words. She faltered though and didn't quite know what to say next.

"Whatever Regina." Emma's got up to leave. "I'll go, now that you're all right. It's not that late. Henry was worried, I'll let him know…"

"Come. Back. Here." Regina sneered and hissed and generally acted like such a cliché that she bored herself. "How dare you enter my home, sit in my bedroom…still in your boots no less…" Regina already thought that the boots were incredibly sexy.

Emma wanted to shout, to throw something, all of a sudden. Being told by the mother of her son-_their_ son-that she wasn't wanted, that Henry is better off without her was one thing…well, it was _everything_ and it made Emma feel like dirt. Emma was tired of being treated like dirt by Regina, just as Emma had been treated by so many; being thrown away…again…again…like all those times before…

The pain was written all over Emma's face and Regina could have taken full advantage…but instead…

Somehow, they ended up close together, breathing heavily against one another, each wanting to say something terrible, something awful, but neither quite finding the words.

Then, there was a kiss. Emma lost her composure first and moaned against Regina's lips.

Regina was on her knees and Emma's shirt was wadded in her hand and suddenly their mouths were wet and urgent and open and Emma was tearing at her jacket and Regina was tearing at her shirt and no one could really tell who undid Emma's jeans and lifts Regina's skirt…

Ok, so their first time wasn't all candlelight and fucking roses.

They were not naked. And Emma felt a bit foolish with her jeans around her ankles. But she wanted so much to just be inside of Regina…

…and Regina panted and moaned at Emma's fingers, inside, for the first time.

And it was delicious.

They lay breathless, flat on their backs, afterward…

"This will _never _happen again." Regina stated the words plainly. She was hungry and suddenly wanted to be in her kitchen, alone, with dinner and a glass of wine.

Later, when Regina had time to find her bearings again, she wondered if the thing with Emma might be repeated after all. She could not stop thinking about the feel of Emma between her thighs. And the smell of her…

…that was when Regina knows herself hooked. When she began to smell Emma behind her, all around her, even when the woman was nowhere near.

So Regina called Graham, used him to blot out Emma's memory. In her own twisted way, Regina cared for Graham. She used him and held him against his will, but he warmed a small part of her heart without anybody noticing until it was too late…

…the truth was this: Graham opened the door, just a crack, and Emma snuck her way in.

**Glimpses of the Future: **

**The Curse Falters.**

Regina is in a coma just as the sand storm approaches Storybrooke.

Except this time, Storybrooke is not isolated. The sandstorm is joined by blizzards, droughts, flooding and earthquakes which lead to tsunamis across the Western and Eastern seaboards. As Emma, Mary, David and Henry chart Regina's progress, they all experience varying degrees of wanting for her actual wakefulness.

Mary and Henry, always pragmatic, do not really want Regina to wake up.

David and Emma are far more forgiving.

But all four have an inkling that people like Regina might be needed at this terrible, terrible time.

In the meantime…

Regina's dreams have morphed into visions, which means that they do not have to go through all this nonsense when she finally does wake up. Her dreams are as real as waking life. They happen simultaneous to the physical realm which Regina has fooled everybody into believing in.

In one sliver of foresight, she and Emma resolve their differences over that other life-the one that clued Mr. Gold into the reality of the original Curse. Regina is not controlling the dream, because the dream is somehow _meant to be_.

Just as Regina and Emma are _meant to be_. Mr. Gold, in fact, is the one to reveal this small detail, just as he begins to shape-shift into an image of his truer self. He reveals that when Regina cast a spell to destroy the Storybrooke in which she and Emma were divorcing partners, the truth came to him at last. And when Regina remade Storybrooke, Mr. Gold returned to form with a clue to the truth of the whole puzzle, which not even Regina could understand.

Well…anyway…it was/will be/is really strange, for Emma and Regina, the day a gold-skinned lizard-man with the face of Mr. Gold, cackled and hissed and told them that they were actually fated to be together.

Regina is, in actuality, working the whole thing out as she sleeps deeply….

In her visioning, the entire town watches as Regina and Emma scream at one another. Mr. Gold-_Rumpelstiltskin_-laughs and dances about and generally acts like an ass while they fight.

"You cheated on me with _multiple _lovers." Regina's voice cracks as she shouts. "And what _she _did-your _mother_-what she did was unforgivable." She says the word with such bitterness that it nearly covers the heartbreak in her eyes.

Nearly.

"I'm sorry. I don't fucking remember! And dammit, what if the whole problem is that you _can't _forgive?" Emma shouts back because she is _furious _that Regina has managed to turn the tables on her _yet again_. "You killed Graham and made me feel responsible." She jabs herself in the chest for emphasis as heated tears course down her cheeks. "You've lied and manipulated everybody and still…still…"

"Still _what?_" Regina sobs, embarrassing stupid sobs, choking her. "What?" She wears a torn blouse and her lip is bloodied and her hair is mussed and she has just been fucking ordered to live in her house _alone _for the rest of her damned existence.

"I forgive you." Emma whispers. "and I love you."

**Storybrooke:**

**Eternal Present.**

Regina is dreaming again: back in Storybrooke. The future, past, and present, are all collapsing into one continuous fast moving river. Still, it is a normal dream, and they have time.

_The Lizard man is laughing again…"what did you think, Queenie? That you could mess about with Time and Space and just get away with it?" _

His laughter is still ringing in Regina's head when she wakes up.

Regina slides out of bed and walks sedately to the washroom where she flicks on the light and reaches for the tap. Regina's eyes flit to the mirror, reflecting confusion, arrogance, sadness. The colors of Regina's emotional life were once neat and orderly. No longer. She leans down, suddenly exhausted, and fills one hand with water, then drinks knows now that the woman in her dream, the woman with the sword, is Emma Swan. She knows it as surely as she knows that Emma is also awake, somewhere in her little 's phone vibrates on the stranger's voice. Emma's voice."Is Henry all right?" Emma asks. She is really asking about them both, not just Henry. Emma worries about Regina, about her stress levels and her lack of communication with Henry…Regina tries to keep the broken shards of her heart tethered, long enough to make a shaky she hangs up, she weeps. When Regina hopes that her dreams push her further. Toward what, she isn't has to be something better than this damned existence…

…but she has thought this thought before. Regina remembers her last conversation with her father. His words, that they could have happiness, and hers, 'not here'-well, they were both right, weren't they?

Her mind is calm again and she checks on Henry. He sleeps, one hand flung beside his face, the other on his stomach.

Just like her father used to.

The realization jolts Regina. She recalls, from those times long ago, when her father was ill and she took on the task of bringing him food and water, how her heart had warmed. All those years, when her father took care of her

…now it is Regina's turn.

Regina walks Henry to school the next day. They do not end up speaking and it crushes Regina.

That day at work, she decides to give Emma a call. To instigate a fight. To fill the void with as much anger as she possibly can.

The truth of the matter…

…is that everything that happens is based on cause and effect.

While the trial separation is no longer in their memories, but if Emma and Regina _could remember it all, it might make sense of some of their bigger fights. There were moments that Regina severed from all moments before it, which were destined to repeat itself. Regina is therefore nearly helpless against the urge to start a fight with Emma, because the fights have already happened. _


	5. Chapter 5

**Storybrooke: **

**Eternal Present.**

They have fought like this before, over silly things-like Emma cheating, or Emma dying, or Regina freaking out and murdering people. They don't yet remember it all, but it happened, and it is all catching up to them both.

So, in Storybrooke, _part deux_, with its repetitious and destroyed memories, Regina finds herself in a curiously familiar situation.

An hour after one of Regina's antagonistic phone calls, Emma is throwing furniture in the Mayor's office.

Regina stunned, freezes beside the wall where a chair has gouged a six inch hole and remains embedded in the is panting and grinning stupidly. "Ha!" She shouts. They both know that this should be enough to destroy Emma. To send her to jail, to send her out of town. But the fighting invigorates Regina speaks, her teeth grind. "I thought that we agreed to stop arguing." She hisses. She is wearing that same black turtle neck but Emma is wearing a torn white t-shirt now. They are contrasts in light and dark, except it is Emma who continues to find things to hurl at Regina in laughs and shouts, "Don't you want anything more?""More than what?" Regina is so incredibly beside herself that she can barely speak. Her rage is palpable but she is powerless to stop the much stronger and younger woman before her. "More than this?" She gestures around her at broken glasses and furniture. Emma finds herself pushed backward by Regina. So it is she, despite her aggressiveness, who falls on her back on the chair Regina seems to use as a throne.

"Oof," Emma loses her breath as Regina lays heavy upon her. Emma's hands run soothingly over Regina's back, her ass, her legs, then up again over her shoulders all while Regina sets about licking and biting her neck like a fucking vampire. "I think we've done all of this before." Regina is saying then. Their clothes are staying on, but they can't stop moving against one another."Yeah?" Emma asks, spreading her legs and letting Regina rock against her."Perhaps I only dreamed it." Regina replies. "You do try to kill me in most of my dreams now.""I wouldn't do that." But even as Emma says the words, she is terrified that they might not be true.

An hour later, Emma has Regina pinned against the desk. Thankfully, the rest of the town's employees are gone for the day, otherwise they would be treated to some embarrassingly loud sounds.

Including the sound of Regina begging. "Please. Harder. More. Fuck. Now!"…It feels wrong, but she might die if they stop now. Regina feels stretched by Emma's hand, but wants to feel even fuller, wants to curl up and pull Emma so far inside that they might become as one.

Regina's cries are muffled by her own hand. And Emma just will not let up-she isn't being gentle either. Emma's tongue is too vigorous, her hand is curling and pulling, and she looks completely enthralled with all that Regina can give in looks up from between Regina's thighs and is momentarily entranced. Regina is naked and open. Regina struggles to remain balanced on the desk. Her feet knead helplessly against Emma's shoulders and then she gives up and tangles her hands in long blonde hair and waits for the onslaught to this time Emma is gentle. She places her mouth very carefully around Regina's clit and uses her hands to sooth thighs that have begun to tremble. Emma moans as she feels Regina grow smoother, harder, and then rigid, bucking in a sudden and unexpected , unsure suddenly, stays on her knees. She breaths against the inside of Regina's thighs and awaits instruction."Help me up." Regina helps her to stand and fumbles with the front of Regina's blouse. But Regina doesn't seem interested in getting dressed. Instead, Emma feels her own shirt lifted above her head, her jeans hurridly undone, and then…"Omigod…" Emma babbles and falls against Regina's shoulder, holding on, as Regina's fingers slip cool and dry inside of her-too dry, but that's ok, because it doesn't take long for Emma to rectify the begins to push down against Regina's hand, amazed that she is still standing at all. She wants Regina close again and pulls against naked hips. But Regina has other is so much anger between them. Emma is tired of it, but concedes momentary defeat so that Regina can shove her against the desk. They are quiet as they move begins to speak without warning. "Seven addresses…" She says, twisting her fingers inside of Emma's wetness. "Who's to say that you won't leave again?""I thought you wanted me to leave." Emma's voice does not give away the things she feels as Regina pulls her in, pushes her back, and pulls her close again. Emma reaches between her own legs and strokes herself while Regina leans and bites her Emma comes, she is sure to hold Regina as close as she can. Their hips press together and their hearts beat almost in unison. They both know that they'll go back to pretending that this never happened. The next day will bring a new crisis and they will pretend that finding refuge in one another is no longer possible. They will pretend that they have not found home and they will choose loneliness and exile over whatever _this is._

_It is the next day, or perhaps the day after that, when they see each other again. Emma is feeling lonely. Loneliness, ironically or not, drives Emma to be alone much of the time. She alone than deal with the complications that people heap upon is different now, though. Emma can't get the people in her new life the hell out of her mind. No matter how much scotch she consumes, or pot she (no longer, not since Henry) smokes, the people of this town will not leave her in her loneliness, and despite the fact that there are two people in particular who will not leave her quiet mind alone, Emma decides that it might be a bad idea to go to Regina's house that night. She tries to stay away…But her dreams are so strange that Emma cannot resist the temptation to walk over in the morning instead. Emma's dreams make reality feel stranger than fiction. Her dreams feel like a map. There are clocks, bleeding all over this town, bleeding into her mind, and there is Regina behind all of it always wears black in Emma's dreams. Also, Regina shouts a is 4am when Emma's footsteps approach Regina's now familiar house. Too familiar. In fact Regina invited Emma to live there in a recent dream, saying that they had actually built the house together, out of straw and earth in a forest clearing in another time. Emma cannot imagine mud beneath Regina's fingernails but she sort of wants to see that, time is never right in Regina's house. Emma knows that it is early, but Regina's clocks all read front door is unlocked and Emma makes her way quietly to Regina's bedroom. She can hear the shower running already but is actually not surprised when a slight figure slams into her from behind and tosses her onto the bed. Regina would use a horror movie trick like that-the shower running to make her feel like predator instead of is always Regina's prey."You're already up." Emma says, her voice muffled against the bed spread. Unmade. Sheets smelling of lavender and lemon and all of the things she wants to do with Regina right now. Slowly, for once. Emma wants to be naked and sweaty and wrapped up in the woman who pins her down and places one knee just on Emma's kidney for emphasis. "Ow." Emma says Regina is tearing at Emma's clothes. Furious. Who knows why. Something is chasing them, Emma can see the fear of it in Regina's eyes as well. When she turns over and reaches and tries to pull Regina close, Emma can see all the fear in the world."Hey." Emma says. Because she has the luxury of bravery. And Regina hates her for , Emma's hands are tied above her head and Regina goes for a pair of scissors beside the door before kicking it closed."How am I supposed to go to work in this outfit?" Emma asks. She is still too blasé about the whole thing, too confident for Regina's liking, even as her clothes are being cut from her. Even as Regina brings the scissors dangerously close to the apex of Emma's thighs. All it does it make Emma moan and squirm and frown a kisses that frown. She throws aside the scissors and reaches with both hands and soothes the wrinkle of worry on Emma's forehead. As if she is communicating with her hands, Regina seems to say 'don't worry…it's even worse than you think…'Jumbled images roam through Emma's head. Cheating on Regina with a string of women. Will this be their future together? Emma is oddly sure that it is-and then she has a fleeting thought that it might be their past. Past, present, future, jumbled into one. And in one moment Emma is undone. The fear shifts to her as she feels Regina's mouth between her spread legs, hot and wet, and grinning like a cat. Tears leak from the corners of Emma's eyes. She falls asleep after Regina makes her come. It is, after all, only 4am and she isn't exactly a morning Emma wakes up, she is covered in a lavender smelling sheet and the shower is running again."Stupid red herring." Emma mutters. She is untied but entirely naked. She goes to investigate and finds Regina crying angrily in the shower whilst shampooing her hair like the soap is her climbs in and can do nothing more than comb her fingers through the dark tresses flowing from Regina's crown."Just rinse and repeat." Emma quips. She uses her thumbs to gently hold Regina's eyes closed and pushes them both beneath the streaming water._


	6. Chapter 6

**Storybrooke:**

**Future and Past Collide.**

Regina dreams that she is back to being a Queen, except it is before she cursed the whole world, after she met Emma, and in between all of the subsequent interwoven realities. This dream makes little sense. Graham is sputtering nonsense about kissing Emma Swan awake from some stupid sleeping spell…

"_Only her beloved can awaken her with a kiss" Graham begins, only to be interrupted by Regina, who now fully the Queen, strides past him and yanks on a pile of weeds at the base of a pine tree. "…Gina…" Graham begins, his tone pleading. Because quite suddenly, Emma is not just asleep, but she is also bleeding. The sun turns red with it. The Queen spares only a glance to see all of the changes, including the blood that floods the forest beneath her feet. _

"_Shut up." The Queen bites hard on the leaves in her hand and presses them to the gash on the side of the fallen White Knight's neck. The gash closes quickly but still bleeds. "Well!" The Queen hisses. "Kiss her you fool!"_

_He tries. Graham's lips press and he musters all that he can of his grief, his love, his passion…_

_Still, Emma sleeps._

_A great wind swept around them then. The Queen shielded her eyes from it and stood on her feet. Regret had already clouded her powers and now she was helpless as the forest floor was torn up all around them. _

_A green glow floated toward the Swan and settled at the crown of her head. _

_Images flash through the Queen's mind. The Swan: smiling; walking beside Henry; walking beside the Queen herself; laughing…and then…_

_Lying down. While the Queen kissed her. Only this image was one from another world. A world where the Queen lived with the boy at the clearing, and with this woman, this woman who in the Queen's memories had made them both so very happy…_

_The Queen presses her lips to the Knight's. The Queen's mouth warms her Knight. Her Knight. The Queen smiles as the Knight stirs. Something in the Queen's chest breaks and rearranges itself and mends itself and she cries and kisses the Knight harder. _

_And then the Knight-Emma-is kissing her back. _

_The world goes dark and the sun is blocked. In the distance, the sounds of wolves can be heard and Regina is sure that Graham is truly one of them now…_

Regina wakes up, no longer in her bed in Storybrooke, but firmly in the future. She knows this because David is there with Mary and they are holding hands. She glances out the window of…the hospital, it looks like…and sees a sandstorm whipping against the glass.

"I saved you." Emma is grinning.

"No, I saved you." Regina retorts, though her voice is scratchy.

Mary, still glaring at Regina, looks at them both as though they are crazy.

**Storybrooke: **

**Hearts Into Dust.**

Regina and Emma do not speak for what feels like a long time after the Graham's death. In reality, the time might be brief, but Regina cannot quite tell how long it stretches. How long had it been since their fight in the graveyard? How long since fists had connected, shocking and angering them both?

In fact this is one of Regina's first clues that all is not within her control. This lapse in memory. Who exactly is in the driver's seat when Regina forgets her true identity and lapses into normalcy?

They see each other at Granny's where Regina nurses a whisky on the rocks while discussing something quietly with two local businessmen. Regina is considering going home with one-or even both, what the hell-but she spots Emma looking oddly worried and quite sad. Regina knows that her decision making abilities are hazy again. She is lonely. Graham was, after all, warming Regina's bed where Emma still had not been allowed.

Emma orders a beer and looks out the window at a gathering storm while Regina watches her from the corner of one eye. It has been raining for days. Angry thunder crashes repeatedly.

Not long after, Emma approaches Regina-cautiously-and offers to take her home.

One of the men moves in Emma's way and opens his mouth to speak, but Regina has already considered the offer.

"Deputy." Regina smirks. And Emma has a curious sort of feeling that this title will not last. "I do have business to discuss with you. Shall we?" And with that, Regina has dismissed the men at her table and is by Emma's side. It feels momentarily satisfying. Perhaps she just likes rejecting people.

The sidewalk is wet and they walk quickly together. The silence is not as awkward as one might expect, but Regina yawns more than once at it. Emma looks as though she is carrying the weight of the universe on each shoulder. An apology is probably struggling to erupt.

Regina is trying not to shiver by the time they arrive at her home. She has already made a decision about something but will not reveal the end game until they are upstairs. "Come inside for a drink."

"I can't…" Emma grimaces. She opens her mouth to say something and Regina says,

"You can." And walks ahead. Emma takes only a moment to follow.

But instead of pouring alcohol, Regina pours glasses of water. Emma chugs hers and says "thanks" before taking Regina's empty glass and putting both in the sink. They lock the front door, together, and then Emma flicks off the lights as she follows Regina upstairs…

…and Regina has an overwhelming feeling of déjà vu.

"I won't stay." Emma whispers.

Regina is genuinely confused. "Won't you?" She replies.

Then, without a word more, they close the door to Regina's bedroom and they both begin to undress. There is no anger. Emma is fighting tears as she climbs into bed. Their bodies fit neatly together as Regina slides beneath the sheets.

There is pity in Emma's kisses. Regina tastes the acidic tears and swallows the words Emma murmurs against her lips. Regina opens her eyes and watches as Emma says 'sorry, sorry, sorry' as those lips cover Regina's chin and neck and jaw line.

Regina is sorry as well. For all of it. But who would listen to her apologies if they knew everything she had done? And this would certainly not be happening. Emma would not be pressing her naked body to Regina's, running her hands over Regina's hips, pulling them so close together.

All of Regina's lies are beginning to pile up.

And as their kisses deepen, Regina's memories begin to change. No longer does she flash back to something terrible done by Emma in some invented world in between the one Regina has frozen them into. The past begins to bleed into the future.

Emma's lips are heated on Regina's neck and Regina sees something terrible and wonderful. Another world. Regina gasps when she recognizes a flash of Henry, older. Another child with him. Blonde hair, a girl. Emma walks in and she laughs as her arms wrap around Regina.

And then the visions are gone and Regina tries to mask her tears. As Emma's mouth traces a path down Regina's stomach, Regina openly weeps.

The tears are for all of the lies that are beginning to overwhelm reason. When Emma finds out all of these lies, Regina is sure that forgiveness will be impossible.

Afterward, Regina is on her left side, watching Emma sleep. Emma sleeps splayed out on her back, one leg over the left side of the bed, the other leg touching Regina. Regina tests Emma: she tries to move away and somehow Emma edges close and a limb or a hand touches some part of Regina. The sheet falls further down and Regina has an urge to lift it, to cover some of Emma's nakedness. She might get cold. Regina has a strange memory, again, of a time with Emma in some small house with little heat.

"Are you warm enough?" Regina asks Emma in her mind. Emma sighs and turns onto her side, facing Regina. Eyes still closed, Emma's arms wrap around Regina, force her onto her other side, warming her instead.

Regina takes a long time to relax.

"Oh, um, sorry." Emma mumbles behind her, threatening to take away the hand that cups Regina's breast.

"No, it's ok." Regina pulls the hand back.

They sleep strangely and dream deeply, and in the morning Emma is sure to climb out the window before anybody can see her.

_Emma dreams, later that week, that she and Regina are in Regina's backyard. They stand next to the apple tree which has changed shape and color and seems to be growing an entirely different kind of fruit. Regina's hair is longer and piled on top of her head. She wears a long, black dress, which shines with silver strands in the moonlight. Silver seems to be Regina's new color. Silver like the wrist band Emma is suddenly wearing._

_Emma tries to say 'hey', but Regina has already acknowledged her presence. Regina is digging into what becomes a rather large garden. _

"_You always do this." Regina is saying. "You check on me when the gardening is finished." she laughs. "You could help, you know."_

"_Sorry." Emma says from a distance. The moonlight spreads silver even further and some of the flowers and plants have stems of glowing white. "I check on you because I worry."_

"_That I'll end my own existence." Regina says dimly, still digging. Yet dirt never touches her dress and when she turns to reach for Emma, the darkness changes and more light bleeds in. "You're doing this, you know." Regina whispers as she kisses Emma, once, twice. "Your colors are becoming mine."_

_Emma looks at her boots and sees that they are black and no longer brown. She is suddenly wearing what looks to be a metallic long sleeved shirt. A sword appears by her side. "Hey. Cool." Emma laughs in her dream and knows then that she is indeed dreaming. _

_The third time that Emma wakes herself, she gets up for good. The moon is bright in her window, and she walks over to look up at it. Her bare feet are cold on the wooden floor which is reassuring. _

"_House arrest?" Emma mutters aloud in the still air. She suddenly knows for certain that in her dream, she is the…Sheriff. Perhaps, but also something more. And Regina is her prisoner. Except Regina is allowed to stay in her own home. That is the prison…_

_In the waking world, Emma tries to avoid Regina. Their relationship is on one of its downturns, after mean words by Regina and angry responses from Emma._

_Regina and Emma decide that have already exchanged enough angry words, so they ignore one another for a couple of days. _

_Until the day when Regina arranges a ridiculous dance for the townspeople to celebrate…something, no one can recall what…in the school gym. _

_Emma is summoned in writing to watch over the dance. Upon arriving at the school, she is utterly bored and seeks Regina out for some verbal sparring. Emma is helpless against the pull of the other woman and wants to see if she can goad her into some make-up sex later on. _

_She finds Regina standing next to a table of punch and food. The woman looks seriously out of place and speaks to David's wife for a brief moment before going back to her awkward, arms crossed, pose. Regina is wearing a dark suit and red blouse. Emma realizes that she has underdressed for the occasion and wears her red leather jacket with a t-shirt. She decides to find some new clothes someday soon. Still, the business wear on Regina and the 'lesbian undercover cop' (which Emma was called recently by Ruby) looks are their respective uniforms. Their armor. _

_Regina does not acknowledge Emma's presence with more than a nod, but for some reason, Emma continues to stand next to her. _

"_So." Regina clears her throat. "Tell me about Tallahassee…"_

"_What is this? Story time?" Emma finds herself actually sneering at Regina who looks genuinely contrite for a split second before rolling her eyes and sneering back. Emma backs down first, as always, and says,_

"_Lots of crime. A surprising amount. I had steady work." _

_This earns an impatient sigh from Regina who looks ready to walk away from this conversation. _

"_Fine." Emma says. "A woman. And a man." she laughs. "I was kinda dating two people…at…" Her eyes are suddenly wide as she senses Regina's energy shift. "Ummm…"_

"_Stories of past conquests do not amuse me." Regina decides in that very moment, even as she speaks the words aloud. _

"_What? Are you jealous?" Emma begins to laugh and then thinks better of it. "Hmmm." She purses her lips and presses a finger to them. Hard. Harder when Regina's face turns an angry shade of purple. _

"_tell me about other things." Regina hisses. "Anything else."_

"_What, like, the bar scene?" Emma wrinkles her nose and scratches it, watching as couples nervously shuffle away from where she and Regina stand. She realizes that everyone in this damned place is too nervous with Regina being there to actually relax and have fun. Especially since Regina looks like she's about to blow a fuse. _

"_No." Regina sighs. "Never mind." _

"_Ok, ok." Emma looks around again and turns fully to Regina. "Hey, come for a walk with me. I'll tell you about the randomness of Florida. I used to go to the Keys a lot. I saw crocodiles. I also saw a half eaten foot in one of them. It was gross. I chased a guy in a pontoon boat once. Then I threw him in to get eaten by crocodiles because he annoyed me." She speaks fast, really wanting to get the Mayor away._

_Regina is genuinely interested in this tidbit of information and actually smiles. "I'm not going anywhere with you." She still says. _

"_Yes, yes, you are." Emma rolls her eyes and stomps away. _

_It takes a few minutes for Regina to follow. She finds Emma outside, leaning against the back of the school. _

"_Hey." Emma turns in a slow circle and grins at Regina. "No kids out smoking pot? Or sneaking booze? What kind of a town is this?"_

"_I will not reward such stupid questions with a response." Regina says, crossing her arms again. "Did you really throw somebody in with crocodiles?"_

_Emma grins. "You believed that one? No, I wouldn't deliberately feed somebody to giant toothy reptiles."_

"_Oh." Regina sounds almost disappointed. She leans against the wall, next to Emma who has jammed her hands into her jacket. Regina shivers a little and Emma leans in. "Well. Interesting, nonetheless."_

_They stand in the night air, listening to rather loud music from inside-louder since Regina left, it seems-until a cheesy Chicago song comes on._

"_Who picked the music?" Regina is suddenly angry and looks as though she is about to storm back inside. _

_Emma frowns sheepishly. She had, in truth, handed over some cds from the back of her car. She reaches out and touches Regina's arm, drawing a glare from the woman. _

"_Hey. Uh…" Emma stammers, her hands suddenly damp. "Let's…I mean…do you want to dance?" She feels like they might be at a Junior High dance-one she never went to the first time around-and it's kind of fun to pretend that they might have such an innocent and absurd moment together. _

_Regina just stands and stars, utterly dumbfounded. "Somebody might see us." Regina whispers. _

"_Nobody is out here but us." Emma already has Regina's hand and steps back with her. "Just one dance. Before you go in and make everybody nervous again."_

_Regina opens her mouth to protest but cannot._

_They dance for a brief few minutes, before they just stop and hug instead._

_Neither woman sees Mary, standing ten feet from them, with her jaw on the ground. _


	7. Chapter 7

**Storybrooke: **

**Eternal Present-Between the Lines.**

Regina sometimes thinks that the void inside of her is growing a system of tunnels, much like the system beneath their cursed little town. Every day that Regina tries to connect with something…she fails. When she tries to connect with her son, she fails. She fails similarly when trying to speak to just about anybody in town. And when they look at her with fear, she lashes out. No one can help her and she has forever to live like this…

Only Emma stands up to Regina, that much is already known. Emma's firm words and firmer hands make the hollow place in Regina glow in anger but also in something frighteningly similar to love. So Regina says mean things and makes Emma feel responsible for horrors caused by the curse. Regina even hurts Emma physically, sending her home with trails of blood drawn from nails that dig too deep.

Regina pulls Emma's naked body against her own equally bare skin. And then she tries to pull Emma even closer…

"Ouch! Fuck 'Gina!" Emma has slipped up and called Regina by a shortened nickname, not for the first time. In bed, on a Saturday, while Regina pretends to be at a meeting and Emma lies to their son that she is at work as well.

Mary hears them through the door and chooses that Saturday to help a friend with childcare. It will be a long while before Regina finds out that Mary's knowledge of Emma and Regina's relationship is triggering protectiveness and also remembering.

They have been at it for what feels like hours, but really isn't. Regina languishes on Emma's narrow bed, staring at the throbbing vein in Emma's neck.

Emma stays between Regina's thighs, panting and grimacing as Regina draws her hands up and down firm arms, soothing and taunting at once. "Fuck this." Emma mutters, rolling off of Regina and spreading droplets of blood over the sheets.

Regina does not say that she is sorry, because she isn't. She dresses and leaves in silence without a backward glance. If she looks behind her, she might feel tempted to tell Emma the truth.

And the truth will just not do.

The void in Regina is spreading and it is all Emma's fault. Sometimes, Regina even wants to tell her everything-to unburden the aching lies.

Regina wants to prey on Emma's weaknesses, to make up for her own.

**Storybrooke:**

**Smoke-filled Skies.**

Emma drinks too much at Granny's, the night she becomes Sheriff. Henry has already been walked home by Archie, and the locals are buying Emma far too many celebratory drinks. Emma blushes as Ruby looks on, amused, and lustful. Emma considers dragging Ruby into some back corner for a quickie, but decides to get some fresh air first. She stumbles slightly on her way outside to smoke a cigar that somebody has given her.

Regina watches as everyone takes note of Emma's inebriated state. Regina knows that she should just allow this-Emma, digging her own grave. But instead, Regina intervenes. Regina shares a quick look with Ruby who shrugs in defeat and then Regina smirks to herself as she pushes her way through the front door.

"Emma, come with me now." Regina speaks carefully, standing directly in Emma's line of vision. "and put away that disgusting thing."

"No." Emma laughs. "And no. You're too mean to me. I'm not going anywhere with you." She waves the cigar in Regina's face and laughs again. "and I'll do whatever I…hey!" Emma looks down, saddened by the sight of the now broken cigar on the ground. "That. Was. Mean."

Regina smirks up at Emma and adds, "You are a public servant, you know. A public figure. You cannot act as though you are still in a frat house in Boston. Or wherever else."

"Hey, I didn't live in a frat house." Emma shakes her head. She did once live in a frat house, but it was only for a week when she was homeless. The friend who let her stay was gay, in the closet, and lived with a bunch of slightly frightening young men. How the hell did Regina find out…

Regina, bored with the conversation, falls silent but slows down her pace so that Emma can walk alongside her.

They walk to Regina's house and sneak in like a couple of teenagers. It is actually a total turn-on for Regina, who completely missed her youth. Regina hisses "guest room" and leads them in the opposite direction of her own room. By the time they get there, and close the door behind them, Regina is already throbbing. So she submits, when Emma pushes her onto the bed and falls gracelessly on top of her.

"No, fuck you, don't touch me." Emma mumbles and pushes Regina's hands up and ties them together with her belt. The job is not done well and Regina can easily escape but, for some reason, does not.

"Do you wish to hurt me?" Regina asks, not for the first time. "To make up for those marks on your back?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Emma pants against Regina's throat, biting and licking. "for me to justify all of your…your…" She loses her words and runs her hands roughly over Regina's breasts.

"My…what?" Regina struggles to maintain control in her voice.

"Your emptiness." Emma mutters, sliding down and struggling with Regina's slacks. Once they are gone, there is a pair of panties to slide off, and then Emma dives in, mouthing Regina, licking and sucking…

"Oh God…" Emma groans against the intoxicating wet scent of her lover, and presses hard against her own hand…

…and promptly comes, like someone who hasn't had sex in years. Or like someone who has just had sex for the first time. Either way, it makes Emma laugh at herself.

"Did you just…" Regina stares as Emma shakes and giggles.

"Yeah. Sorry." Emma grins up at Regina and then leans in kissing the base of Regina's clit, making the other woman's eyes flutter closed. "Let me try again. This time I won't finish so quickly…" And this earns a genuine laugh from Regina before Emma's tongue, wicked and gentle at once, licks the length of her.

Minutes later, Regina rides out a surprisingly long orgasm and then lays limply while Emma 'undoes' her hands and climbs all over Regina's prone body.

"Jeez, fuck, I just want you…" Emma mutters. "I just want you to feel something. For somebody."

Regina stares up at Emma's wet face and mussed hair, and says "Nevermind." before pulling her down for a kiss. Emma tastes like sex and Regina begins to get turned on all over again. Their hands are in each other's hair but their bodies rock together.

They had kissed enough times for Regina to grow accustomed to the flashes and images that cascade. Regina even fancies herself capable of controlling the images from time to time. She lets herself roll her tongue languidly against Emma's, lets their kiss grow deeper, more intimate. Regina thinks herself to be in control almost always in those days, and that is her weakness.

…because there are newer and more numerous images than ever before and Regina's eyes snap open.

One after another, Regina and Emma walk together in various dated outfits; they fight; they kiss; they laugh; they scream in anger; they make love…

Regina keeps kissing Emma, will not stop, even as Regina realizes that there is at least one more life that she has erased from their existence with this damned curse. But then…

Another life. Each life designed to fix the error of the life before it.

They fell in love after Henry was born. Regina left and another curse was thrown. This one erased even Regina's memories. And Gold…

Gold is suddenly grinning at Regina after every image of the two women. Gold and his lizard skin and yellow eyes, from the last life, or the life before that…

Regina wakes up, minutes later, and Emma is crouched in front of the cold fireplace, trying to get a fire started. "Hey." Regina mutters. "Did I just…"

"Fall asleep while eating my face?" Emma grins over one shoulder. "Yes. You ok?" The fire catches and a lick of smoke escapes up the chimney. "Hey, let's do this in that office of yours again sometime. The fireplace is bigger."

"On a Sunday morning, perhaps." Regina yawns and props her chin on one hand, turning to look at Emma. Emma sits back on her heels. She is still naked, but Regina can only see shadows of her form now silhouetted against the backdrop of the fire. Regina considers some possibilities, then. Like taking Emma to the cabin that she used to bring Henry to, when he was still an infant. Henry no longer remembers those trips, and Regina has things to hide at the cabin, but she would allow Emma a night or two there.

"I should go." Emma's words are laden with fatigue. "This rain isn't letting up tomorrow, and I have rounds into the late night."

"Come over afterward." Regina says quietly. "I'll…" She grimaces. "Cook."

Emma nods, wide eyed. "Ok, so…ok." They are here again-in that place where they might get along for a period of time before Regina tips the scales and says something awful again-and Emma can't stop herself from feeling relieved.

**Storybrooke:**

**Rainy Days.**

The first time Regina and Ruby slept together, they established a set of boundaries that would protect both from whatever she feared most.

In Regina's case, it was the fear of the being caught...with a woman, but especially a woman like Ruby.

For Ruby, the fear was punishment for in her words, "taking what everybody wants in the first place"…words first burned into Regina's brain the day she pressed Ruby to the cellar stairs and began far too roughly for Ruby's liking. Regina was oddly floored and from that point forward, when she and Ruby met, Regina gave only what was asked of her.

Ruby has, of course, also slept with Emma. Regina knows this by now, though she and Emma have never discussed it.

Then, suddenly one day, Regina wants to know the why, the when and the how good was it, of the situation. She does not seek out Emma for this discussion, but instead drives her car to Granny's in the rain, half an hour before closing time.

They end up outside, in the shed of all places. Regina's excuse for dragging Ruby out there is pretty lame, but they busy themselves with making out for awhile and don't bother with further details. The kissing is really good, both have to admit, but it isn't long before Regina finds herself pushed atop a long wooden table. Ruby's mouth is hot on her neck and Regina smiles at the familiar feeling of long, cool, clumsy fingers fumbling beneath her dress.

"No underwear. Awesome." Ruby's eyes shine eerily as she pulls back to look at Regina. The full moon, unblocked by clouds for just a moment, shines in through cracks in the shed wall. Regina is exhilarated by the small jolt of fear that Ruby inspires from time to time.

It is cold and damp out, and Regina's dress is sleeveless and Ruby's skirt is too short, so they cling to one another as they fuck. There isn't anything really intimate so much as familiar between them, but Ruby pulls back and stops when she realizes that Regina is even further from her than before.

Ruby had thought that this thing between Regina and Emma was just another game, another move for the Mayor to shore up control of their town. She moves again inside of Regina, allows the hand that slips between her own legs, and wills away the feelings that are beginning to rise to the surface. Ruby's teeth are sharp on Regina's neck, and later, when she remembers everything, she will actually thank the Queen for the timing of the curse. But these are worries for a time far in the future.

When they are through, Regina looks lost. She continues to perch on the wooden table, frowning downward.

"Don't worry." Ruby speaks quietly as she adjusts her skirt. "I won't tell her."

"Tell who…her what?" Regina's head snaps up, but she is equally quiet.

"That you're in love with her." Ruby replies, brushing past Regina on her way out. When Ruby touches Regina's shoulder, she knows that this is a kind of goodbye.


	8. Chapter 8

**Storybrooke:**

**Present Day Solitudes. **

There are times when Emma feels absolutely punch-drunk around Regina. Tides always seem to turn in a heartbeat with the shifty Mayor.

Emma thinks about it all in overly-poetic terms while she sits on the beach, late one night, with a take-away container of deep fried seafood. The wind is cleansing somehow; it seems to sharpen Emma's mind.

It always seems to Emma as though she puts up with an epic amount of shit from Regina, just after they have a series of breakthroughs that appear to bond them as an at least potential (maybe someday) couple (or something).

There is no 'they', and so 'their' ups and downs are really just suffered through separately. Emma's latest strategy is to play it totally cool. She answers Regina's questions with glib remarks and sarcastic references to 'the curse'.

What is really weird, is that in return for her attitude, Emma earns an invite to dinner.

It is fully possible that Regina asks Emma over in order to find out more about the new guy in town-Stranger Danger, as Emma calls him. Either way, Emma has played a bit of a loyalty card and is 'looking into it' and so earns a reprieve from her and Regina's fighting.

Emma contemplates the dinner invite while she wastes time on the beach. It is far too cold to be doing this, and her lunch break isn't long enough, but she needs to think it all through. It's just too easy to jump whenever Regina tells her to. Emma second guesses herself and cannot decide if she should stand Regina up, or go through with dinner.

She buries herself in work then, knowing that her shift will not end until 11pm.

After her late shift, Emma finds herself stalling with Mary. Emma sighs and shifts and grimaces as Mary speaks about the kiss with the Married Man, over and over, with that animated and terrified look. There is something about Mary's escapades which make Emma feel like a grossed out teenager, so she decides to bail for Regina's.

"I'm soaked, and I had a long night. Let's uhhh…process this in the morning." Emma squeaks in the wooden kitchen chair, wanting very much to take off her heavy clothes. Mary has school the next day, so Emma is off the hook fairly quickly. Mary gives her a hug and Emma decides to sneak out without following upstairs.

The night is rainy and cold and Emma wonders why she bothers entering Regina's space. It would be better, she is sure, to just go back to her own bed. To stand Regina up. To refuse the crumbs thrown her way. Emma wants suddenly to drive out of town-to go camping or something. To see a bit of nature. Or maybe just to leave this place for a bit…

Of course all of these thoughts roll through a hazy, sex-struck mind. Emma does not care if that isn't a term because she is most definitely not 'love'-struck. She does finally end up at Regina's, despite having driven all around town.

Regina has had half a bottle of wine and a long shower by the time Emma arrives there, but there is still a faint perfume on her neck that still gives it all away.

The truth is, Regina has just been to see Ruby, and Emma is her second conquest of the night. Emma tries to keep sexist terms like 'sloppy seconds' out of her vocabulary, but sometimes crass bullshit like that sneaks its way in. Especially when she leans in and smells another woman on the woman she is about to share a bed with.

For some reason, Regina is feeling amorous on this night. She keeps staring at Emma in her large Sheriff's rain coat before reaching and tearing it aside. Emma finds herself stripped rather quickly of her outer wear before Regina also removes the heavy wool sweater beneath, and stops at Emma's tank top.

"Hmmm" Emma hums. She lets Regina run her hands all over bared arms, until goosebumps overtake and Emma decides to play hard to get about ten minutes too late.

Totally pissed at herself, Emma grabs the bottle she finds beside Regina and chugs some of it. "This wine is far too good to enjoy without a glass babe." Emma quips as she walks-saunters, really-toward the kitchen. Emma does not know what this attitude is that she's copping, but she'll go with it if it drives Regina a little bit crazy. Emma notes Regina's scowl at being called 'babe' and grins.

"By the way," Emma is still talking as Regina follows her to the kitchen. "I stopped by Granny's."

Regina's plasters one of her best fake smiles on her face and waits for the punch line. The plate she has warming for Emma is leftover from her and Henry's dinner, but she did technically cook it. So what if the only thing she has to offer is leftovers? And so what if that holds a double meaning? Regina has so little faith in any of this working out to her advantage, that she shrugs off any worry. Besides, she is quite certain that this thing with Ruby is over; and is equally certain that the thing between Emma and Ruby _is not _over. Which is tremendously annoying. So, really, who is Emma to whine and complain?

Emma sits heavily at the table and digs into a plate of chicken. The food distracts her from anger.

"Omigod." Emma moans around a forkful. "There is totally cinnamon in this sauce, isn't there? And other yummy spices. Is that an apricot?" She sighs and makes more happy sounds as another forkful of rice and chicken find her mouth.

Regina nods and sits down without a word.

"It's ok, you know. Whatever. We don't own each other." Emma speaks around her food. She smiles but her eyes are darker than usual. She looks…not angry, or even jealous. Instead, there is an intensity Regina has not seen in Emma.

Regina nods again and bites back a retort. _Nobody_ owns her. Still, it makes her feel a bit lightheaded to think of Emma wanting her so intensely. Emma chews and stares at Regina as a series of emotions flicker across her face.

Emma eats quickly and cleans her own plate and still Regina does not move. The rest of the wine goes quickly so Regina retrieves another bottle, shaking slightly as she pushes away from the table. When Regina returns to the table, Emma is gone.

Regina finds Emma in the guest room that they occupied the last time. Regina's robe goes quickly and she stands in front of the beginnings of a fire while Emma looks her over.

Regina does not want anything more than Emma's pleasure, which is really funny to Emma for some reason, and so they awkwardly undress and roll around heatedly before the invisible wall between them rises again.

"Gotta go." Emma has not come, will not come this evening, and wants to go to sleep.

"You could stay." Regina stares in the darkness, frustration evident in furrowed brows.

Emma scowls and for some damned reason, agrees to sleep over. She wishes that she might take part in the morning ritual of the household. Maybe Regina will let her make Henry's lunch or something. Probably not.

As if she reads Emma's mind, Regina immediately begins yammering about getting up before Henry's alarm and whether Emma might consider leaving through the backdoor this time.

Emma huffs and turns over, clenches her eyes, and tries to sleep.

"It's just…" Regina speaks softly from behind. Her hand hovers over Emma's bared shoulder but does not touch. "I want to maintain boundaries. Until we figure this whole thing out."

Emma's eyes pop open.

Good enough, Emma decides, before willing herself to sleep.

"Tell me about work." Regina says, breaking the silence again.

Emma's eyes open again. She thinks about this. "We don't exactly…_do_ pillow talk." She straightens and smiles, taking, momentarily, a familiar level of control.

Regina scowls and Emma rolls her eyes but instead of fighting, they have a brief conversation about a case which is particularly worrisome. Domestic violence-something they at least can agree upon as a highly unwelcome and unsavory part of Storybrooke life-is suddenly necessary 'pillow talk'. Regina makes actual concrete suggestions and Emma finally drifts off to sleep with a strange sense of security and actual purpose.

It is not much later when Emma wakes up to find Regina kissing her belly and nuzzling between her legs.

"May I?" Regina asks politely. She earns a slight nod and shaky breath in return. "I woke up wanting you…if that's…" Emma nods again and Regina kisses her way down.

This, and the circles she draws on Emma's thighs are enough. Emma nods and her legs fall apart. Regina's mouth is tentative, light, but it is still enough to draw a long and low sound from Emma's throat. The elusive orgasm follows, not long after, and fills Emma with a pleasant hum.

Emma is still panting when Regina gets up briefly, fetches a glass of water for Emma, and then returns to bed.

Regina's expression is nearly unreadable. Because there is much more emotion there, swimming around, than Emma has ever seen in Regina.

Regina says. "You're staring at me."

"And you're letting me." The softness of Emma's voice surprises her as well. She reaches…

And Regina does not pull away. Even as Emma's hand strokes over hip and belly and breast, not in an overtly sexual way, but in a gentle, exploratory, way…as though they might care about one another after this battle ends…

"Tell me what the hell is happening." Regina whispered. "Because I did not expect *this*."

Things will dip downward again for them-soon. Regina will act like a cornered animal and Emma will respond in kind to the tactics thrown her way. They both know already that the road ahead will become tougher before it ever gets better.

**Storybrooke:**

**Eternal Present.**

Regina prides herself on controlling her reality. Everybody's reality, really. Time and space are Regina's play things.

Until Emma comes to town and brings chaos with her.

Reality, it now seems, is a series of unending pathways, leading always to some strange beginning.

One night, long past the fire and long before the end, Regina is awoken by Henry from a dream in which she is telling Emma that a woman wandering through town is a vampire. Emma keeps laughing and calling Regina 'stupid' which is, for some reason, hilarious.

"Mom!"

Regina is shocked into wakefulness. Henry is staring at her from the doorway with an annoyed expression (his usual, as of late).

"You were laughing." Henry said with a grimace. "Were you torturing people in your dreams or what?"

"Henry!" Regina isn't annoyed though. She is quite used to the boy's insolence. "For your information, I was laughing with-not at-somebody."

Henry allows himself to relax and asks, "Who?"

It is Regina's turn to grimace. She gets up to escort Henry back to his room and says,

"None of your business young man." When she really wants to tell him. To let him know that this thing with Emma is somehow becoming…

Something out of nothing (like a song they laughed at together). Something born of an abyss. Terrible and hopeful at once.

Two days later, Emma is in bed with Regina when the dream actually continues. Vampires, werewolves, and Ruby and Emma waving stakes and guns with silver bullets-it is all quite hilarious to Regina. Regina laughs out loud, again, but it is Emma who wakes her up before Henry can come storming in.

"Hey." Emma looks terrified. Her hand is on Regina's arm and they both look at it. Then they look at each other, both realizing that they have crept closer in the night.

In truth, things have gotten worse, not better, between the women. Emma has grown tired of Regina's cruelties and lashes out often.

Regina stares silently as Emma flounces out of bed and gets dressed. She wonders if Emma might drop by Granny's, to see Ruby. Regina does not like the competition but she will not reveal weakness.

Regina watches as Emma leaves behind a sock and climbs out the window. The sock remains on the floor, empty, discarded-a reminder that Regina both craves Emma and hates her for never filling the void left by the curse.

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**Life Goes On.**

The climax, when they all remembered, all at once, who they were in the life before Storybrooke, is really sort of anti-climactic in a weird way.

Regina ends up under house arrest, because they don't know what to do with her and some think that they still might need her around. Regina isn't older and she isn't gardening yet, like in Emma's dreams. Instead, Regina is angry and bitter and when Emma continually insists on visiting her, Regina replies with venomous words and thrown objects for a full month before the fight goes out of her.

Emma checks on her under the pretense that she is the Sheriff and is in some kind of double duty as parole officer. She finds Regina in her tub, one day, after assuming the worst and kicking in the door. Regina says, "you'll have to get that fixed now, you know," and chugs her red wine. "It's 11am," Emma replies, pouring herself a glass as well. They do not speak, but Emma keeps her company and then leaves.

The next night, a town mixer happens and Emma wanders, drunk, back to Regina's.

"You remain a highly inappropriate public figure." Regina, (who is quite sober) informs Emma before putting her to bed in Regina's bed, not the guest room, with a glass of water and a kiss on the forehead that Emma isn't sure she gave. Emma wakes up to Regina watching her sleep and leaves.

They keep this nonsense up for a long time. Emma is continually worried that Regina will kill herself, so she also calls a lot. They do not sleep together for a long time after the curse is broken, and Emma actually considers a new relationship for a period of time. But she still visits Regina and eventually calls off a rather serious commitment in favor of the quiet times she spends with her son's other mother.

And as time goes by, and Henry begins to mature-enough to want to visit the woman who actually mothered him the longest-and joins Emma on many of her daily visits to Regina's house.

One day, Henry and Emma find Regina smoking a cigar in the backyard, laughing to herself about the state of the birdhouse that Henry put in the old apple tree. A cat had already mauled the poor thing, but the birds have clued in and are doing their best to retrieve seeds.

"I think she's losing her mind." Henry worries from the back doorway, nudging Emma ahead of him.

"I am most certainly not losing my mind." Regina replies, hearing perfectly well (unlike Emma whose taste in rather loud music has affected her). "How are you Henry?" She has become much more civil to her son, after chasing him away with angry words, just the week before, and immensely regretting it.

"Fine, fine." Henry shrugs, entering the backyard. He wears jeans and torn t-shirts now that he is with Emma and can dress as he pleases. It pissed Regina off at first, but she got over that one quickly. "Why are you smoking?" Henry grimaces at the curl of blue smoke that reaches him. Emma, for her part, looks tempted and smiles when Regina nods toward the wooden box on the ground between them. Soon, the two women are sharing news while Henry squints disapprovingly at them both. His eyes flit back and forth before they begin to grow wider…

"Noooo fucking way." Henry shouts. "What…what…I mean what is going on with you two?"

Emma, unsure of what his problem is, shrugs and puts out her cigar. "Sorry…"

"No, no, I'm not talking about the cigars. Though it's weird. Neither of you…I mean…like, smoke and…yeah…" Henry is flailing. His t-shirt, Regina remembers much later, has a cartoon heart and something to do with Green…something. Regina is unmoved by Henry's tantrum but puts out her cigar as well. Henry stares at her and asks, "Don't you actually, like…I mean…don't you sort of like, hate Emma?"

"No." Regina states plainly. "Why do you ask?"

Henry blushes a deep purple and stares at Emma. "You…aren't you…I mean you were engaged to like, a dude just last week."

Regina's eyes narrow at that and she huffs. Emma blushes as well and looks at her feet, frowning. "yeah, I was. But…ummmm…it wasn't happening with us."

"But it's happening with you?" Henry shakes his lawn chair and his eyes move back and forth between the two women. "Like…you know? I mean…happy endings and shit…they don't include two _women_…"

"Henry for goodness…" Regina bites her tongue before the reprimand can get any worse, but does say, "I raised you to speak complete sentences, did I not? Now speak. If you have a problem, simply tell us." She rolls her eyes and looks exasperatedly at Emma. "And stop saying 'like' before every other word. Who taught him that?" This earns an epic smirk from Emma.

"You're together." Henry says. "You two."

"No, we aren't. Not any longer." Emma says quietly.

The revelation has different affects on all three. Emma is silent and pensive. Henry is still shocked. And Regina looks as though her heart has broken-yet again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Storybrooke:**

**9 to 5.**

Regina and Emma are not exclusive, but since they are also not officially dating, they do not discuss the matter. There are times when they cannot be apart for more than a day, and times when they cannot stand to be together either. When they need space, they sometimes sleep with other people. It sort of works, since neither has been in a stable relationship and doesn't understand what it might look like anyway.

Still, it does not take long for jealousy to catch up to them both. Regina and Emma fight one morning over their mutual indiscretions, but it is Regina who lands the best blows. She calls Emma irresponsible and childish and a lot of other things. Emma leaves through Regina's front door because the accusations have hit too close to home and she is afraid she will stumble on her way out the window.

Emma does feel immature-especially around Regina. She feels lost and sort of silly, and even her taste in music underlines the anxiety. And the whole thing with Regina…and Ruby…and whoever else…it makes Emma feel like she is avoiding growing up. Because maybe growing up means taking on responsibility for much larger things than Emma can handle.

And then, that very day, Regina has Henry's castle torn down and there is the whole stupid public humiliation in Town Hall.

Emma goes home after Regina forbids further contact with Henry, and does the only thing she thinks to do.

She seeks out Mary and proceeds to cry on her shoulder for the better part of four hours. It is midnight when Mary finally manages to get Emma into bed, tucked beneath blankets and extra pillows. The next day, over breakfast, they strategize. But the strategizing that occurs is not something Emma is accustomed to. Mary and Emma do not scheme or plot ways to take down Regina. They do not worry about anybody, in fact, but Emma herself.

"You can't parent Henry if you can't teach him anything about boundaries." Mary says, after a good hour of talking about Emma's clothes, her work ethic, and how seriously she takes her job as Sheriff. And to avoid the epic sulk which soon might follow from this statement, she adds, "Regina will let you back in if you give them some space. I'm sure of it." She isn't sure about this, but the deeper message needs to be heard by Emma.

So Emma goes to work, the day after she is forbidden from seeing her son, with a new sense of purpose.

Emma does her rounds and spends part of the morning at the boarding house where a group of odd, but intensely loyal men take pride in a greenhouse they began for the town. There aren't jobs like the ones the men remember working around any longer, so Emma is amazed to see what they have created for themselves.

She also spends half an hour with Mary, at lunch. Emma is given the inspiration to then get up and actually close a case file or two. A battered woman whose husband continually returns to the family home, is given new security measures while her children's behavioral problems at school are met with a combined effort to access after school programs and counseling.

Dusk sees Emma clearing her desk, organizing her papers and to-do lists for the next day. The Deputy is left on duty for the night, and Emma strolls back to Mary's with a lightness she has not felt since arriving in Storybrooke.

She feels so good, in fact, that Emma isn't even happy when Regina caves first-a full 28 hours after telling her to shove off-and calls Emma's cell.

"Mayor Mills, how can I help you?" Emma says first, seeing that the caller is Regina. She fights the urge, walking through streets that have become oddly crowded, to throw the phone into traffic.

Emma sighs heavily when Regina pretends to hear a sound outside of Henry's window.

"Not fair." Emma mutters, hanging up the phone. "She tells me to fuck off one minute, then says that she needs me the next. I won't be fooled again…my ass…" She is careful to be quiet as she mutters to herself, and she walks briskly so that the townspeople who smile at her will not suspect that she is on the verge of kicking someone's puppy.

Regina answers the door with a smirk. Brown eyes search up and down Emma's body, freezing somewhere below Emma's bellybutton.

"Really?" Emma is incensed. Regina pulls her inside and slams the front door.

"No fucking way." Emma backs up immediately and Regina stops in her advancement. "Where's Henry?"

"Friend's house. He has a friend now. One he made at the new playground." Regina meant for this statement to be smug, but instead they both freeze, momentarily in awe of it.

"That's great." Emma grins and Regina steps closer.

"I will not apologize for encouraging you, for mentoring you, and for providing you with invaluable instruction." Regina practically purrs the words. "I can assure you that we will eventually work something out with Henry. For now…"

"Boundaries." Emma finishes for her. "Which means boundaries between you and I as well, right?"

Regina scowls. She is an inch from Emma and her nostrils flare at the scent of leather and some kind of incense. They stand together, close but not touching.

It is then Emma who gives in. She steps closer and captures Regina's lower lip in between hers. They are kissing and it evokes a weird mewing sound from Emma which would be embarrassing if Regina wasn't already panting and growling. They kiss for what seems like forever until Emma has the uncontrollable urge to lick her way down Regina's neck and up again.

"You taste like cherries. And you look unbelievably hot in that ridiculous jacket and hat." Regina talks and then moans uncontrollably in Emma's mouth, before actually biting and sucking her tongue, which Emma has never experienced before and thinks is kind of weird and insanely sexy at once. They are being kind of over the top-an apparent consequence of days without touching.

"That's…" Emma's eyes grow wide as Regina's mouth latches onto her neck. "Not too hard…unnnhhhh…" And Emma's knees go weak. Regina has a knowledge of the sensitive places along Emma's skin that is surprising.

"I'll lend you a turtleneck." Regina gasps before returning to Emma's neck and sucking, biting and licking hard.

Emma can feel Regina's hands on her ass, then around on the fly of her jeans. It isn't long before Emma sees only the top of Regina's head, feeling herself being pulled and sucked warmly into Regina's mouth. Emma bends at the waist, gently pushing a now irate Regina away. Emma quickly does her jeans up again and leans in to kiss Regina quickly.

"No, not like this." Emma breaths out hard as she speaks. There is not enough trust between them to play these kinds of games-Emma wants to enjoy the sight of Regina on her knees, but she wants to fix things a little bit first.

Emma hauls Regina downstairs and into the kitchen. It is 1am by this time and Emma knows there will be hell to pay if she doesn't get some sleep, but she doesn't really care. For whatever reason, Emma decides that she wants to sit in the backyard with Regina. To just sit. And maybe stare at the stars or something corny.

"No, stop it, I don't want to have sex with you." Emma tries to be gentle, feeling oddly sorry for Regina, but she pulls Regina's hands away and shoves them into Regina's lap. It is as though Regina cannot connect without being overtly sexual-and Emma just wants to get past all of that. Even if it is only just this once. "Listen." Emma scoots back and tries to calm her breathing. It gives her away and Regina smirks, knowing that she has had an effect. "Listen." Emma says again, pleading this time. "I think, I mean I'm not sure, but I think that I can be good for you by actually not doing everything you want me to do."

For once, Regina has no comeback. She can only sit next to Emma and stare at the smirking woman, utterly speechless.

**Storybrooke: **

**Lives Overlap. **

There are days when Regina catches a glimpse of what might have been a previous life with Emma. The whole thing bothers her. Regina is sure that it is not a good idea to know so little of one's enemy. Especially when whatever it is that one does not know, might change the enemy's position into an ally.

Daydreaming is not Regina's idea of an appropriate use of time. Especially while working late. Especially while working late after having wasted an entire day stalking somebody.

Which, Regina has to admit, is exactly what she does. She stalks Emma Swan. It makes Regina feel as though she is in control and out of control all at once.

Regina bends over a pile of papers that needs the Mayor's signature, and stares intently at the black ink flowing from her pen. She scrawls her name over and over again, before throwing her pen aside and reorganizing her desk instead.

If Regina thought too hard about the things she had done, it might catch up to her. She tries not to worry about it all.

Regina's eyes stray now to the light that emerges beneath her door. Henry can be heard, walking quickly to the bathroom and then back to his room.

More daydreaming. Regina imagines taking Henry away from this town. Is it impossible? She isn't sure anymore. She imagines going…

…to all the places Emma Swan has been.

Why? Regina scowls at her own train of thought. Why follow the path of some random drifter?

Why indeed? Regina recalls that she in fact followed Emma around for much of the day. Always with the intent to intimidate. Of course. But also to track Emma's moves, and to see…

…if she is all right.

Regina sits back in her chair, heavily, and stares at the ceiling.

The daydream is simple. Regina realizes that she wants to leave with Henry *and* with Emma. Regina wants to go to some new place. Some wonderful place. A place where she might be forgiven.

Regina imagines a hotel room-she gathers the memory from Emma's own mind. She can do that, it isn't hard. Emma is an open book. A hotel room then. Regina imagines Emma in a towel. Henry in an adjoining room. Regina snorts with uncharacteristic laughter. Why, even in fantasies, do they have to ensure that the child is either asleep or gone? Why not just…

…all right, then, Emma, in a towel. Regina can feel her heart lurch at the thought. Emma, just showered, walking casually through a room they might share. Lying together, undressing, dressing again, talking in quiet tones. They would travel somewhere. Who knows where. There would be sun rises and sun sets and sand and maybe a lake. Emma would drive, and when the kid was asleep, Regina would do all of the things she's ever wanted to do but couldn't because she has created a whole world she must now control.

But instead of just fantasizing about somebody and maybe trying to get off over it, Regina turns over and grabs for her cell phone.

One hour later, the hasty phone call to Emma sees the Sheriff climbing in the bedroom window, bringing cold air and a silly grin.

"This is ridiculous." Emma whispers. Regina lounges in bed, naked, on her side, a Cheshire smile on her lips. Emma flips Regina onto her stomach and kisses her back. Then she stops, all at once. And yawns.

Regina growls and turns back over. "There you go, finishing what you start again."

"You know what?" Emma is angry this time. Really angry. Regina isn't even sure why, but Emma is even angrier even than when she outright hit Regina in the mouth. Which was terrible. And which should have put a stop to all of the sex and everything else.

Emma has obviously been 'thinking things over' which does not bode well for either of them.

"What?" Regina is smirking. She loves doing this. She loves how easy it is to verbally defeat Emma. And hates it at the same time.

Emma is, by now, standing right in Regina's face. "I do…"

"You do what?" Regina resists the urge to yank on Emma's jacket, to take it off, to expose those shoulders.

"I do finish what I start." Emma tries not to say 'sometimes' before grabbing Regina's arms, hard enough to bruise, and kissing her even more roughly.

Regina's eyes widen. She is no longer in the room. But she is still with Emma, as her memories cascade, and culminate in water, in a lake with Emma-kissing while the water laps over them…

Emma sighs and tugs on Regina's waist until they are laying together. "You work too hard." Emma decides. "Go to sleep. You'll feel better in the morning."

**Storybrooke:**

**Future Storms.**

Moments before the sandstorm, the curse is broken. Some say that Emma broke the Queen's curse and brought the storm by smacking the Queen upside the head, knocking her out, and putting her in a coma.

Emma knows that she was actually making love to the Queen-to Regina-when the woman who really isn't much older than Emma herself, has a full blown stroke. A fucking stroke. Of all things.

The coma is medically induced, and Emma has all of 48 hours to stay by Regina's bedside before things get really, really bad for Storybrooke.

And in the chaos of the sand storm, which is an ice storm in another reality, and a tsunami in yet another reality, time bends and sways and they all find themselves right back in the midst of Regina's (Gold's?) curse again. There are so many new beginnings, and slightly different midway points, that their endings change as well. It takes them all a very, very, very long time to figure out what time is doing to them-the slingshot that Regina set off when she set off the curse-but eventually some of Storybrooke's heroes and heroines learn to use time's loopholes to their advantage.

During one transitional point, Regina wakes from what is a small fainting spell, purely on her own, without medical intervention. The whole town knows who she is, and Emma has handcuffed her to the hospital bed for the sake of appearances.

"I saved you." Regina says quietly to Emma, who is sleeping on a chair nearby.

"No, I saved you." Emma mutters in return. She opens her eyes, yawns, and leans over to Regina. "Sorry about the cuffs. Mary…uhhh…my mom, I guess…is still pretty furious."

Mary takes that opportunity to walk into the room, just as Regina is explaining what _really _happened.

"I saved you. I kissed you, and you woke up." Regina smirks as she tells the story in a singsong and annoying tone. "Others tried to kiss you, and they failed. We, apparently, have some sort of bond."

Mary, glaring at Regina, looks at them both as though they are crazy.

"You look awful." Henry chimes in. He tugs on Mary's jacket and whispers something about getting a drink. They leave Regina with Emma.

Emma promptly bursts into tears and proceeds to babble the whole story to Regina.

"It's Gold." Emma sniffs. "He killed…" Fuck-he's killed a whole hell of a lot of people, and Emma isn't sure about how to break this to Regina. So she skips it. "Sorry, I mean, never mind that part. But it's not even just him. It's a whole lot of shit that we can't handle alone. Not without you." Her lips press wetly to Regina's hand.

"Oh. Well." Regina breathes in and out, watching Emma's lips and mouth and perfectly soft hands, move their way up her arm. "What are we…so, I suppose we're…public?" Her words are muffled by Emma's kisses and she decides to stop speaking for a time.

**Storybrooke Futures: **

**The Past Changes the Future**

**(which changes the past in turn)**

Emma is deeply sleeping when Regina, the Queen of the Kingdom for the time being (though many are now poised to take a swing at her neck), steps over to her. They are in the past. The White Knight has somehow found her way back through to Regina's old world, and now Regina is stuck saving the frustrating woman.

"Wake her up." Regina hisses at Graham who wanders off to play with his wolves. In fact, Graham is now a wolf. Regina does a double take but lets it go-stranger things have happened.

When Emma does wake up, they are firmly in the future, and Regina has already been forgiven by just about everyone.

Emma squints at where Regina and Henry stand, pale-faced and worried, beside Mary and David.

"You pulled him from school for this?" Emma's voice comes out rusty with the lack of use and also with shock. She shifts in the hospital bed and grunts in pain. Regina moves to help her but Emma waves the woman away. "Was I shot or something?"

"I…" Regina stammers, momentarily speechless. She does not answer the second question, but goes for the first. "What do you mean, I pulled him from school for this? For this? For a medical emergency involving his Mother?" Regina is frozen as she speaks, hands in front of her, looking as though she wants to pin Emma to the bed. She looks terrified.

"Yeah, well…I mean Regina…we don't…" Emma covers her eyes with one hand before continuing. "There isn't any love lost here. I was under the impression that you wanted me out of Henry's life."

Henry and Regina exchange a strange look.

"What?" Emma asks.

"A trial separation." Regina whispers. "That was what we agreed to. And it ended when you nearly died."

**Storybrooke: **

**Stranger Futures.**

Regina is utterly alone. Just as she always feared.

The woods are filled with unfamiliar lights and sounds. There are dreams, at night, of coming ice and storms and water. The whole land-Regina knows this to be true-will be covered with water soon. She truly transported her Kingdom to a terrible place. So terrible, in fact, that she has lost all of them and the curse has now fallen solely upon Regina herself.

Regina is Queen of her Kingdom still, but the Kingdom consists only of animals and land and rocks and rivers.

So she gets to work and learns everything that she can, in the hopes that she might see somebody from the old world again someday.

Regina learns about the plant life the way she used to. She simply asks them what their purpose is and whether she might make use of their services. It is sort of difficult, because the languages are different here. But in time, the process works, and Regina has learned how to clothe, shelter, and feed herself to a sufficient degree.

One day, Regina is sleeping in the tree she sometimes inhabits when the ground is too wet. Rustling is nearby, and she is startled.

"Through here." A voice! An actual voice-a woman's voice, Regina knows. Regina is panicked, unsure of whether she should leave her tree or stay sheltered.

"I think she's through here. How did this happen? It's all so weird." A young man's voice.

The pair emerge into the clearing. The woman wears a strange assortment of clothing-some of it leather, but cut strangely for Regina's eyes. The woman's hair is golden and long and beautiful and something swoops in Regina's belly.

The boy wears similar clothing to the woman, and has an odd device in hand.

"She should be here." The boy says. His eyes wander above the trees and he suddenly grins. "Mom!"

Regina gapes. Her voice, rusty and not working well, croaks from her unbidden.

The woman down below looks tearful as she takes in Regina's appearance. "Babe…I mean…'Gina…could you come down?"

With a frightened yelp, Regina trips and falls, sliding down the makeshift ladder she made for herself. She lands with a hard thud at the feet of the two strangers who look at her with a mixture of relief and affection and is that….

Love?


	10. Chapter 10

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**Between the Cracks and the Cracks Between Those.**

Sheriff Swan does not take orders well enough, as far as Regina is concerned.

As a result, Regina is forced to ask for help from others in town, when Emma goes off the grid. The Sheriff is chasing men who have pulled the same stunt already-a petty robbery-and Regina wants her to back off. But instead, Emma gets herself hurt and lost.

Regina is shouting into her cell phone when Mary and Archie arrive.

"Sheriff Swan, if you do not return immediately, I will make you regret it." Regina cannot help but to mask her worry with a demand. She is terrified and anybody can see it-so terrified that she even called Mary.

Mary hears the tone in Regina's voice and frowns. When Regina turns briefly from her phone to catch Mary's reaction, she is startled. The resemblance between Mary and Emma is, in this moment, so shocking that it takes Regina's breath. And Regina is transported back to that day, when she asked, 'where is the child'-when she put her mind toward killing the very person who is now swearing and ranting on the other end of her phone.

Mary and Regina's eyes lock.

Regina realizes the trap she has set, in a way she has never realized it before. Because now she is without her magic and in a sense, without her guard. All Regina now has is her attitude. Her authority. However stupidly everyone in Storybrooke adheres to her authority, it is still fragile.

She cannot-and now, in fact, will not-simply sweep Mary and Emma away into the sea or into a pile of ashes. And it isn't just because her actual magic has gone. Though, that fact in itself does still disturb Regina. No, the problem is that Regina has grown to care about these people.

Perhaps she always cared about Mary, on some strange and frustratingly persistent level.

Regina snarls at her son's teacher and prepares for a string of offensive words…

Which never come.

Mary, for her part, only sees that Regina is having a total nervous breakdown.

Regina gasps into the phone "do…as…I say…dammit" and collapses into tears.

Archie takes the phone from Regina, only to hear Emma's voice saying "What? What the fuck, Regina?"

"Ms. Swan? I mean Sheriff?" Archie, ever polite, keeps a hand on Regina's wrist. He pulls the phone from his ear and shakes his head. "She seems to have hung up."

Regina and Mary's eyes are still locked. It is as though Mary has taken every breath from Regina's lifeline and squeezed her somehow.

"Madame Mayor." Mary speaks softly, moving closer. "Let me take you home. I'm sure that Emma will follow soon after. Right?" Her eyes, though kind, are intense upon Archie's. He nods in turn and mutters something rapidly into the phone in his hand.

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**Keep Coming Storms Away.**

Regina is ordering Emma around. Again.

"Sheriff Swan, if you do not return immediately, I will make you regret it." Regina's voice is crackling on Emma's cell phone. But the anger-and is that fear?-is hard to miss.

Emma remembers what drives her so crazy about Regina. It's the way Regina expects everybody to be terrified of her-to listen to whatever bullshit she demands of them.

"No!" Emma shouts into her phone. "I will not do everything you tell me!" And she throws the phone.

Right into the cold water.

Cold water that Emma is currently bobbing around in.

Time, Emma realizes, can stretch in ways far beyond human imagination, when it needs to. She realizes how long the seconds can feel as she anticipates the fall into choppy waters. On her way down, an entire conversation with Henry, about his castle and his book and his relationship with Regina, replays in her mind.

Emma is fairly certain that dying in cold seawater was not on her bucket list. But Storybrooke changed a lot of things for her, so she is willing to concede that this isn't such a bad way to go.

In fact, the whole thing reminds Emma of that movie with Leonardo whatshisname, and that hot actress, and the giant boat…

Emma yawns and scrambles higher on the floating thingamawhatsit she holds to…a rescue thingy…that much she can still recall…one of those things you get from the life guarding chairs she remembers as a kid. She dozes. Her jacket is really heavy and she wants to take it off but when she tries for it, she slides off her rescue thingy and the cold water slaps her in the face.

The world is an awfully beautiful and light sort of place, Emma thinks, as she slips away from it. She wants back into it…so much…but is far too sleepy…

Unbeknownst to Emma, she has thrown the entire town of Storybrooke into an absolute tizzy.

Dispatch hadn't a clue as to Emma's location when she took flight after two men who had stolen the car of one of Storybrooke's poorest families. The car is on the edge of town, stalled now, and the men have already been apprehended by her Deputy (tackled, in fact, after Regina also sped after them).

It is Mary who finds Emma. She spots the woman who is her daughter, from a place on the beach and screams at the ambulance attendants behind her. Regina runs next to Mary along the shoreline and they stare first at one another, and then again at Emma-both wide eyed, both terrified.

Emma has serious hypothermia and it has begun to rain. She is not really aware of the rescuers who arrive shortly after, but she does remember the feeling of being grabbed and taken deeper into the cold.

Apparently, Regina runs-actually _runs_-after the stretcher when Emma is brought to the hospital. Witnesses say, later, that the Mayor broke a heel. It was all very dramatic from the sounds of it.

When Emma wakes up, Regina is under the covers next to her.

In bed.

Emma squeaks and tries to push away.

"Body heat is the best way to deal with this. These idiot doctors are not doing their jobs." Regina hisses, pressing closely again. "What on earth were you thinking?" And the reprimands begin. "Why didn't you call for backup?"

"Where is everybody?" Emma squeaks again. "They're going to see you with me!"

"So. I'm the Mayor. I can convince them of anything. I'll simply say that we have matching blood types and that it is only my body heat that is capable of saving you." Regina smirks at her own wit.

Emma starts to laugh and looks at the door. "That doesn't even make any sense. Seriously, Regina…"

"Seriously? You do not take this town seriously enough." Regina is wearing nothing but a thin tank top and a pair of panties, and Emma cannot stop the rush of desire that warms her otherwise cold limbs. "You think that there are no dangers here. No one to do you any harm. A small town, filled with naïve, simpletons."

There is a knock at the door and Regina actually does get out of bed then. A hospital robe is next to the bed and she throws it on.

Mary walks in. She moves to Emma's side and is not stopped by Regina.

"Emma." Mary's voice is sickeningly sweet. "Next time. You. Had. Better. Be. More. Careful." Her smile is rather terrifying.

Mary's version of a reprimand is ten thousand times more frightening than Regina's and Emma can only gape at her and then nod.

Regina smirks and nods Mary's way. She decides that now might be a good time for an escape and attempts to slide out of bed away from Mary's view. Regina starts to babble, "Good. Well then, Ms. Swan, I'll be returning to Henry…"

"Oh cut it with the 'Ms. Swan'…hooey!" Mary interrupts furiously. "I know what you two have been up to. Thin walls." Mary continues to smile that same creepy smile. "Now get back into bed with her while I stand watch. Henry is with Ja…with David, so both of you can quit worrying about him. Your hospital staff, Regina, is terrible by the way." Mary's voice is pure fire.

Regina actually goes pale. And then Mary adds:

"The next time you decide to curse us all into some fictitious town, keep your medical staff trained."

The room is eerily silent for a long time.

"What are you talking about?" Regina finally whispers.

"You know damn well." Mary's voice is quiet but it roars in Emma's ears. "Now take care of my daughter. Do not defy me. And so help me, if you harm her in any way…"

"I would never." Regina interrupts. "I just…I mean…" Shock freezes her and she goes numbly silent while Emma stares confusedly at her.

The door swishes closed, Mary beyond it, but not before the woman who Emma thought was just her roommate has given Emma a strangely maternal hug.

And then Regina is back at Emma's side, warming her stinging skin.

Emma knows that Regina is worried by the way she continually fusses and mutters and touches every part of her.

"Darling." Regina says, again and again. Which makes Emma feel really light headed. It is a recent thing, this thing with pet names, and Emma is never prepared for the cha-chunk of her heart when she realizes that Regina is beginning to mean something to her.

And then…

…"Emma…" Regina says the name, finally, that has played on the edges of all her dreams. Her face is close. She warms Emma with her very breath. "I am only going to say this once…"

"You don't have to." Emma quips, knowing what comes next. Regina's finger mashes against Emma's lips and she continues.

"I love you. Do you hear me?" Regina's eyes are impossibly sad. "Please be more careful from now on."

"Kay." Emma smiles, fighting tears she can't explain. "But listen. You can't just say that the one time. That isn't fair."

"Yes Dear, whatever you say." Regina sighs and stares at the door while Emma rests beside her.

**Storybrooke: **

**No Time Like the Present.**

There is a lengthy period of time during which Regina and Emma barely speak. There is no sex or covert visits to Regina's bedroom window. There is some public shouting, but folks are used to that between the two. It is, oddly enough, a useful experiment for Regina and Emma-this thing of _not _sleeping together. Because it gives them both time to sort through the whole bio-mom and adoptive-mom tension at the heart of their Storybrooke lives and even more importantly, it opens the door to dealing with their older problems. The ones Emma is not even aware of. Like how she was dumped on the side of a highway because of Regina and didn't know her own parents because of Regina…and so on.

Although Regina was originally the first to cave-the first to make contact with Emma-she has finally gone too far. Emma does not return the favor and instead simply gets herself back to work. She ignores Regina's sexting and drunken late-night invitations and just works hard.

Emma buries herself in work. So much so, that Mary has to talk the town's Sheriff into dinner at least once a week if only to get her to speak about something other than the cases she is on.

Regina's decision to keep Henry from Emma in response to Emma's attempt (however lame) at publicly shaming Regina is one that reverberates through many, many lives. It is not only Henry, Emma and Regina herself who are affected, but the whole town.

Mary spots Regina and Henry at the Indian restaurant, shortly before Valentine's Day. She waves carefully at Henry who just slumps in his chair and smiles briefly in return. Regina does not seem to notice Mary-or pretends not to-and concentrates on her food. And for the smallest of moments, Mary wonders what it would be like, if this whole thing with Regina and Emma actually turned into something…could they be happy? Because she knows that they certainly are not happy apart. Mary walks down the sidewalk, on her way to Granny's, with so many strange thoughts in her mind that she cannot sort through them. This thing between Regina and Emma is ultimately a trigger for Mary. It all helps her to eventually remember her old life.

For Emma, the weeks go by in a sort of haze. There is numbness whenever Henry or Regina's names come up. That numbness is an easy enough demon to conjure and Emma lets herself sink into it. The familiarity of disconnecting from whatever hurts is good enough.

Still, there are some encouraging 'firsts'. like when Regina tries to start something up with Emma, after calling for some contrived reason, and Emma actually resists. Or when Regina 'drops by' the station and tries to kiss Emma and Emma politely turns a cheek and insists on getting back to work. Or when Regina shows up in Emma's room and admits that she isn't wearing underwear and has been thinking about Emma all week, and still, Emma escorts the Mayor to the front door and wishes her a lovely evening…

Actually, that one was Emma's breaking point.

Not because of the promise of sex, but because it is the first time Emma has allowed herself to see how their shared exile affects that sadness behind Regina's eyes.

Emma says things at the front door, just on her way to hoisting Regina through it.

"Annoying, Regina." Emma's voice is liquid fire but her hands are still gentle on Regina's…

"It's annoying. Really." Emma tries again, this time taking her hands away…

"Giving a _shit _about a person who treats you _like shit!"_

…and before she can stop it, Emma is crying about the whole stupid mess.

So much for numbing out.

She ends up crying and Regina ends up crying, and they both rant about not wanting to lose Henry and how Emma is or is not trying to take the kid back, and whatever other stuff between them (with the usual skipped bits of information on Regina's part) and then their bodies are trying to do the usual thing that makes them both feel at least connected…

But Emma stops all of it. The kissing part is nice but neither is really in the mood for it. The hugging part is best but that has to end as well. At least until they sort some shit out. Apart.

Regina leaves shortly after and as soon as the door closes, Emma is a sobbing mess on the floor.

And…it actually feels really great_. _

Crying is like a new emotional toy or something. Whatever it is, Emma indulges for the rest of the night and feels better than she has in ages when she gets up the next day.

There is no resolution for this mess, Emma feels now. She cannot fuck her sadness away or drink it away or even talk it away. There are missing years with Henry. And there are missing years in Regina's future with Henry and Emma begins to feel some empathy for his other mother. Regina has only a few short years to control Henry within and then he'll fly off-likely to see Emma. And then what? If neither woman has this child to concentrate so hard upon, will they have to pay attention to themselves? To each other?

Emma takes these heavy thoughts to Granny's, for a beer after a night that sees her flirting with other possibilities. Valentine's is over, with all of its goofy promises.

"Is it beer-o'clock so early Sheriff Swan?" That voice, the one Emma cannot get away from, floats into her left ear from where the Mayor has now seated herself.

"Haha." Emma fake laughs and shoves her beer aside, untouched. "Was that a joke?" She gives a nod of approval. "Not bad. It's my day off. And no, it isn't beer-o'clock, I've changed my mind." She swivels in her chair and looks hard at the sad-eyed woman beside her. "Wanna hear details of my night? Is that why you're here?"

Regina shakes her head and her eyes shine-still so utterly sad. Emma has the sudden urge to ask Regina what the hell went wrong with her night. But Emma is well aware that Regina's various methods of controlling Storybrooke involve covert affairs that…well…that…

Light a fire beneath Emma's ass, quite frankly.

"Let's go." Emma growls quietly. "Meet me at the spot where you tore down Henry's castle. Twenty minutes."

It takes Emma two minutes to run down the street to her car, five minutes to purchase flowers and a cheesy heart-shaped box of candy, and ten minutes to speed to the water's edge.

Regina is already there, waiting in her car with two coffees and croissants.

Emma has a moment of wondering if she is stumbling into the same traps as always. But something has changed between the two women and it feels all right to just pull Regina into a hug and stand against the wind.

"I won't apologize." Regina says softly. So softly that Emma barely hears her.

Emma looks over her shoulder at where the castle stood and then toward the water's edge. Her eyes water at the cold air whipping around and she shrugs. "I won't ask you to. It wasn't safe. And now you've given Henry an avenue to make actual friends."

When Emma hands Regina the cheesy flowers and chocolates combo, they both smirk. Neither is sure who has won this latest battle. But somehow it feels as though they're on the same side for once.

They end up making out like teenagers in the drivers-side of Regina's car. And it is all ok somehow.

"You can't solve everything with sex." Emma speaks in a rush as her jeans are undone and Regina's hand finds its way between her legs.

"You keep saying that. And I'm not trying to." Regina mutters, grasping Emma's jacket and pulling until Emma straddles her. "I'm just trying to give you something nice on your day off." She bats her eyes at Emma and it evokes a chuckle.

"Flowers, huh?" Emma mutters against Regina's neck. "You like them." She feels Regina nod and sigh.

Emma grins and leans and finds the latch that pushes the car seat back. She rises and falls on Regina's fingers, warming them and finding a rhythm. Emma decides that Regina's lips are the most kissable in all the land and goes for it. She pours everything into that kiss, clasping the back of Regina's head and letting herself actually enjoy the feel of her fingers lacing through Regina's hair and how her teeth scrape Regina's and how Regina moans when Emma pulls back just a little and licks lightly at the corners of her mouth.

But soon Regina is the one in control. She makes quiet demands and when Emma touches herself and finally comes, Regina wraps her left arm around Emma's back and holds her. Emma is doubled over and coming so hard she sees stars and she wants so much, in that moment, to say simple words she has never really said to anybody…

Instead she says "Dammit Regina."

"What?" Regina is still stroking Emma's back through her shirt and jacket.

"I could have so much more than this." Emma mutters.

"But I'm all you want." Regina replies.

Emma just shrugs and begins to undo the top buttons of Regina's white shirt where she plants long, slow kisses, warming Regina's skin wherever it is cold.


	11. Chapter 11

**Storybrooke:**

**Present Confusion.**

It is a rare morning when Regina oversleeps and doesn't really get up until a ray of sunshine burns against her forehead. After a night of too much dreaming, Regina wakes up and thinks immediately: "It must be Emma's day with Henry."

Across town, Emma wakes up at the same time and remembers to pack water this time, in addition to food, and then thinks: "It's my day with Henry."

They both shake these thoughts off; both ready themselves for the day ahead and try to remember where and when they actually are.

Both enter their morning routines with vague worries that there is something they are missing.

Regina drops by the Sheriff's Department. She looks confused and asks Emma if there was something they were supposed to do that day for Henry. Emma shrugs and says that she isn't sure.

Later that day, on her way to Granny's for a decaf coffee and slice of lemon pie, Regina sees Emma flirting with Ruby and then with that idiot Stranger (or at least she interprets Emma's smiling as flirtation but isn't entirely certain). Regina sits and glowers, skipping the pie and just drinking coffee until Ruby begins to look frightened. Regina knows that her face can take on a scary darkness-in a way it gives away her old magic because the darkness just sort of spreads from her. But Ruby's small kindnesses make the darkness retract and Regina forces herself to walk home alone in order to shake off the rest of it.

Regina crawls between silken sheets that night with a feeling of loneliness she has not had to encounter in a very long time. Her dreams are about Emma, which is predictable, but in all of them, she sees Emma in trysts with other people. Graham, Ruby (not the Stranger, which is no small favor) and then faceless women. She wakes up in a cold sweat; yet there is a dull throbbing of desire beneath the insane, white hot jealousy.

The next day at work sees Regina dressed as immaculately as she can be, as organized and efficient as she can possibly manage, and as utterly undone beneath the surface as any of her subordinates have ever seen her. Her lunch is eaten while she works and she forces everybody around her to scurry, double time, on every task they have been assigned. Regina attends a total of six different functions in one day and drinks a post-lunch celebration of champagne (she forgets what they're celebrating) and oysters.

By 6pm, Regina wants to either beat somebody senseless or fuck somebody into submission. If she had her old magic, Storybrooke would have lost a building or two.

So she does what she always does when that terrorizing, angry energy hums and rattles and shakes her to her core.

She phones Emma Swan.

But first, Regina stops by Granny's.

When Emma arrives in Regina's guestroom, Henry is already at his new friend's house, sleeping there for the night. Still, Regina makes Emma greet her in a room not her own.

And when Emma sees Ruby on the bed, wearing nothing at all, she balks.

"Really?" Emma grimaces in a sort of unattractive way and nods toward Ruby. "_Really_?" She asks again. Emma is wearing a that blue leather jacket and a wool hat which Ruby takes off before mussing her hair. The moment underlines the familiarity between the two women and Regina feels her stomach flip at it.

Ruby shrugs and leans forward. "Why not?" Her lips are soft against Emma's ear. "Besides, it might help you two with all of your issues…" Ruby adds, smoothing her hands over Emma's t-shirt before easing beneath it and lifting.

"Really?" Emma squeaks this time as Ruby unzips her jeans and shoots a sly look over one shoulder.

"Can you say anything else, Emma?" Regina smirks as Emma looks at her, startled at the use of her actual first name.

The way it goes is the way it goes, and Emma tries to let it all unfold without worrying too much. For someone with serious abandonment issues, Emma actually worries very little about the future. It helps, especially in a situation like this…

Actually, this situation has no reference point for Emma. She finds herself naked, on display for Regina who sits and watches while Ruby spreads her and molds her own body against Emma's back, and wraps two arms around Emma's waist before spreading her thighs and easing two fingers through her labia, circling her clit and…

Regina just watches. At first, this makes Emma nervous, but then she leans back on her knees against Ruby and wants suddenly to put on a show.

Regina _watches_; and sees the effect it has on Emma. Emma, who, apparently, _loves _being watched by Regina.

"Fuuuuuuuuck." Emma really gets into it then. She reaches back so that Ruby can kiss her from behind. Emma's knees are holding them both upright as Ruby touches herself and grinds against Emma's ass.

Ruby does not touch Regina and Regina does not touch either of them-nor even herself-but they all kind of smile at one another when Emma flops onto the bed, thoroughly sweaty and debauched and almost sated. She and Ruby have fucked in positions Emma never really thought of when it came to two women. And the whole time, Regina did not do more than watch. But her eyes alone made Emma come undone more times than she could count.

"I'm off. Have a good night you two." Ruby nervously does up her blouse but when she mistakenly does one button further up than it should be, Regina leans over to help. They mutter to one another for a minute or two while Emma watches. Ruby kisses Regina on the cheek in a way that is friendly and sweet and seems to reassure them both. Later, Emma will ask Ruby why she tolerates Regina's control of the town. Why she tolerates Granny's control of Ruby herself. But for now, Emma waves weakly and awaits further instruction.

Regina is practically shaking with need when she finally undresses.

"Wait, why did you arrange that?" Emma has questions that Regina wants to silence with her mouth and tries kissing away Emma's worries. Their mouths are open and hot and Regina can barely breath as she tries to take control of the situation. "Wait," Emma says again. She takes both of Regina's hands away from a blouse that is in serious danger of being torn, and adds, "Let me", in a husky voice that evokes a whimper of neediness. "Tell me." Emma repeats her earlier question.

"I thought you'd like it." Regina lies.

Emma shakes her head and carefully unzips Regina's skirt. "No, you did it for yourself. Why?" She starts in on nylons and leaves Regina on her back, clad only in dark silk panties which nearly throw Emma off her game. But then Emma regains control, a split second later, and takes those off as well. Regina is so wet Emma can see it. She decides that taste will be the first sense she goes for, and leans forward.

"Oh yessssss…" Regina has to grab a pillow and jam it over her own face to stop from shouting when Emma's tongue slides around her over-sensitized clit.

And then Emma just can't get enough. Even when Regina comes, once, Emma is starving for her and just keeps mouthing and licking and then fucking because three fingers are suddenly called for, not two, and Emma realizes that she can get better leverage if she climbs up to kiss Regina's mouth. Emma lets her hand slap faster and harder against Regina's clit, her fingers curling deep and stroking until Regina can only tilt her head back wordlessly and give Emma her throat to kiss.

Then Emma takes her hand away and presses herself between Regina's hips. She circles her own hips and coaxes Regina's thighs further apart. They move like that for a long time, Regina's hands restless on Emma's shoulders and back and down over her bum while Emma just keeps going in slow, slow circles, letting their thighs and mounds and bellies and breasts press together. Emma's orgasm is a low rush, shaking her within.

Regina screams when Emma puts her on all fours, tells her to hold onto something, and drives two fingers into her from behind while Emma sprawls beside her and bites one perfect shoulder.

When they finally stop, it is late, but Emma feels the need to talk about a few things.

She starts with:

"Do you get all your girlfriends threeways for Valentines Day?"

This Emma mutters while face down and covered in sweat on the bed. Regina runs a hand over her ass and gives it a firm smack.

Emma chuckles.

They decide not to talk further about it, mutually agreeing in total silence that since they are not really together, they cannot tell each other to stop doing whatever they feel like doing. Besides, Emma knows that Regina knows that she knows that…well, Regina has her secrets. At least that much is known.

Still, Emma insists on staying and at least pretending that they have a good thing.

Regina dreams that night that Emma is holding onto her on a windy, sandy beach. Around them, snow falls and birds screech. When Regina wakes up, Emma is already gone. But she knows, somehow, that they've resolved a small fission, and planted some kind of seed for something good, somewhere down the line.

**Out of Storybrooke:**

**Futures Past.**

There is a man in Emma's bed. She rubs a sore spot on the right side of her head and glances over at him. The beer she had the night before tasted good, so she knew she had had one two many after that. Or at least those are the words she hums to herself as the tune of an old Cash song stick in her head.

Twenty minutes later, he is shouting at her and throwing on his clothes.

"You say you want to be with me," He hops on one foot, tugging on jeans, "but you always go back to her. To her. To a woman in prison, whose son hates her, who turned an entire town against her, and who treats you like shit." He is done, thankfully, both the dressing thing and the talking thing, and Emma is relieved to show him the door.

"Sort your shit out." He shouts from his car before speeding off.

Emma does not tell him that Regina has already been released from prison. Or that Emma has already visited Regina in the small cottage that nobody in Storybrooke knew about besides Emma and Henry.

Henry arrives at the same time. He and Emma stare at one another before slowly going back to their cars, popping their trunks, and taking out an assortment of groceries, wine, and even decorations in Henry's case.

"She needs dishes. And I got her an abstract painting by this artist from Toronto." His voice is gruff and deep but kind and he grins as Emma gives him a one-armed hug. "Also, I brought enough wine for us to stay in for like, the whole weekend."

Before Emma can ask how many times Henry has come here, Regina walks out to greet them.

"Henry, must you say 'like' as often as you do?" Regina's voice is far too tired when she hands out this reprimand.

There is food to cook and art to hang, and they take on the tasks that suit them each best. Henry does most of the cooking while his mothers hang out on the porch, speaking quietly.

Regina waves off Emma's worries about her finances and cuts right to the chase.

"Did you tell him about me?" Regina asks. She smirks and tilts her head toward Emma, swirling wine in her glass.

Emma frowns into her glass of wine and nods tersely. "I broke it off with him today."

"Well done, darling." Regina nods and smiles in genuine admiration. "Two would-be husbands hit the dust. All because of little ol' me?"

Regina's hair by now is long and wavy and Emma finds that it gentles the sarcastic underpinnings of most of Regina's words. She returns Regina's grin and shrugs. "I suppose so." Is all Emma says with a smirk to match.

And then Henry, the fifteen year old with cooking skills far beyond his years, emerges with their food.

"Such a great kid." Emma quips as Henry hands them their plates. They eat in silence for a bit, just enjoying the sounds of whatever the hell (Emma doesn't have a clue) is floating around on the lake.

"So, I found something out." Regina starts casually. She twirls a forkful of pasta around and then daintily bites around it. "From an old friend." she adds after a long chewing session which has Emma and Henry looking warily at one another.

"Uh huh?" Emma hums casually and takes a bite of salad.

"Well, you both might not like it…"

Henry interrupts with a clang of his plate on the table and a childish stomp of his feet. "Just tell us, Mom, we already know about everything else." His hair falls in front of his eyes and he huffs it away. "What did they tell us about keeping secrets in therapy?" He adds.

"Yes, sweetheart, of course. Although they meant keeping secrets generally, not just in therapy." Regina smiles sweetly at the teen and puts down her plate. Her joke is lame and they both know it but it calms Henry down. "Well, it turns out, from what I understand…Emma and I, we may have actually had an entirely different life before the one we're currently living through."

"Like because of the stupid curse?" Emma rolls her eyes and keeps eating. "We got that memo." And because of it, there will be hell to pay when Henry and Emma make their way back to Storybrooke in a few days.

"No, no, another life." Regina shrugs and splays open her hands. "Emma and I were together, raising you, Henry, and I may have…flipped out a little."

The silence that stretches between them all is not exactly tense, but it does go on for long enough to create tension.

"What did I do?" Emma closes her eyes, suddenly sure that some of it was her fault. "and does this have anything to do with all the…" She wants to say 'people on the side', or 'people I've shagged and had no idea why I was doing it but I knew it was to get back to you for some reason or maybe to just avoid you…'

Thankfully, Regina has retained some of her mind-reading skills and puts a hand on Emma's.

"Henry," Regina turns to him and smiles sadly. "I deprived you of something that I think would have ended shortly after I deprived you of it anyhow. If that makes sense."

Henry stares sullenly into his plate and then shovels a forkful of shrimp into his mouth. He chews around it and then mutters, "This whole thing is fucking crazy."

"Henry!" Both of his mothers reprimand his language at the same time and he just rolls his eyes at them.

"Who told you all of that?" Henry asks.

Regina pauses and then waves her hand dismissively. "An old friend. Really, my oldest friend. She isn't well. But I believe her. Though I'm not sure how she knew."

"What now?" Emma sits on a chair by the window and looks out at the same scenery as before. A few feet away, Regina undresses in the dark and then pulls on a dark red camisole and black yoga pants.

"I don't know." Regina replies, her voice quiet. "I suppose it explains some of your compulsions. But then again, what about mine?" She sits carefully on the corner of the bed. "I'm from an entirely different time. Did we try to control one another, did we experience jealousy? Yes. But we also tolerated a great deal more drama than I think people tolerate now." Regina shrugged and added, "Just a thought. I don't know. Either way, what do you want now?"

Emma suddenly feels the weight of all of their lives together, all at once, bunching on her shoulders. She slumps over and rests her head on Regina's knees. "Sleep." Emma mutters. "And then who knows." Emma lets herself be lulled by the feel of Regina's fingers in her hair before she gets up and takes off her boots.

"Sleeping in your clothes, darling?" Regina asks quietly.

Emma shrugs and lays over the covers, next to Regina. "I'm not in the mood, you know, for, you know."

Regina sighs and bites her tongue, obviously, because no sarcastic reply comes Emma's way.

"You know, your father asked me a good question before I went into prison that last time." Regina's voice is eerie in the darkness and startles Emma from the half-asleep state she was in. "He asked if there was anything in my life that I regretted missing-anything at all. Anything I regretted missing as a result of the curse, or any of my actions, really."

"Yeah?" Emma shifts onto her side and yawns around the word. "So what did you say?" Her hand hovers over Regina's hip and she finally lets it fall and rest there. On the curve of Regina's waist.

Regina sighs with is probably relief. Or contentment. "I said," She pauses and thinks it over. "I said, 'Dear James. I regret having missed the 80s. It sounds like it was a hell of a time.'"

They laugh at that. But Emma stops and says, quite soberly, "The 80s were terrible."

"What do you remember of them?" Regina turns over and faces Emma who, by now, realizes that she has been tricked into telling stories about herself. About her childhood.

"Pink dresses." Emma replies. She shifts closer, wanting desperately to distract Regina. "Neon green jelly bracelets and purple jelly shoes. I was just a kid. I remember liking Madonna…" and for some reason, after the mere mention of Madonna, Emma finds her words interrupted by a kiss. Their first kiss in a very, very long time.

And then Regina bursts into tears.

"Therapy really helping you, huh?" Emma mutters against wet cheeks and smoothes back dark hair.

Regina laughs but continues crying, and doesn't stop until she drops off to sleep in Emma's arms.

Sometime around 3am, Regina wakes up and nudges Emma awake as well.

"Small kindnesses," Regina hisses urgently in the darkness. "Somewhere along the way, I could have payed you some small kindness-I could still plant the seeds-and those small favours would change our outcome." She has Emma's attention and continues, "I still can. I still can change things just a little bit, only slightly, so that the muddy waters clear...just a little."

"Ok." Emma agrees without much of a fight. Which-she has to face it-is one of their problems. Emma is still on the fence about a lot of things. Regina's life is in ruins.

And then there is a surge of understanding. Emma nods more vigorously. "You do that." She agrees, rolling over, Regina in her arms. "Go back, plant it in your own consciousness, change something that you might have done." Emma laughs. "Time is your plaything, isn't it?"

"It is all of ours to play with." Regina says, breathless as Emma kisses her neck. "Small kindnesses." Regina mutters to herself, kissing Emma again and again and again...


	12. Chapter 12

**Storybrooke:**

**On the brink.**

They are in the cabin that Regina flees to after the people of Storybrooke regain their memories. Emma does not know why she keeps running out here, but she can't seem to leave Regina alone for even a day. She brings wine and food and sometimes they have a halfway decent conversation before it becomes all drunken shouting and frantic sex. The townspeople pretend not to know where Regina is. They are all infuriated and it is as though everybody just needs a bit-or a lot-of space.

"It's like…being married to the mob with you, Regina…and…Scarface." Emma smirks, raising a glass of white wine colored pink by the remnants of the red that had been in the glass before it.

"Ms. Swan?" Regina enquires. From bed. Fully in sleep wear. Fully almost half asleep. Fully amused and slightly pissed off.

"Scarface." Emma reiterates. "You're just like Tony fucking Montana. Right down to the snake motifs."

Regina always aware of how close people could come to the truth without even knowing it, simply smiles benignly and tilts her head. Snakes were always important in her magic.

"Sidney wears too much fucking eyeliner." Emma stands and fumbles with clothes, skirt, shirt, socks. "I don't like that guy. Did you fuck that guy?" Emma sneers.

Regina sighs and answers, "No, darling. Did you? I certainly hope not. Come to bed now. Silly girl."

They lie in bed, close together.

"We could have this, all the time." Emma squirms closer to Regina as she talks. She props her head up in her hands and enjoys the stretch on both sides as she leans back against the pillows.

"Perhaps." Regina says, "Every decision we make affects the path ahead. But time also loops back around. So we can make decisions differently as well."

Emma falls asleep without realizing it and when she wakes up again, she is in a large room, with a much larger fireplace…

"_Mom." Henry, a man now, his voice booming, walks in wearing a black and brown and green leather outfit. He looks sort of like Peter Pan. "You're going to sleep in on your own wedding day!"_

_And suddenly, Emma is dressed in a long silver-white dress, and she is at the front of the aisle with Henry on her arm. _

"_What the fuck Henry." Emma hisses at him. At the end of the long aisle is a man Emma has only seen once-on a motorcycle on his way into town. "I'm not doing this." Emma hisses again._

_The crowd is smiling and clapping as Emma begins to walk. But then the room goes utterly silent._

_Behind Emma is Regina. _

_Except this Regina is wearing beat up black leather pants and a turn white tank top. Emma feels a thud in her chest, followed closely by warmth further south. She grins at Regina._

_Regina smiles back confusedly. "I'm so sorry." She tells the room. "I only meant to bring…" And she walks forward with a wrapped box which Henry immediately leaps toward. _

_The crowd erupts with shouts, some of which are "don't take anything from her!" _

"_Wait! Mom!" Henry calls out. He looks back at Emma who stares at Regina's running form. "I call you both Mom. It gets confusing." Henry says, "but I meant that one. And I have to go after her…"_

"_I'll come with you." Emma looks back at the room and shrugs. "Sorry. Uhhh…I'll be right back." She grabs the box on her way out the door. Except that when she walks, Emma's feet seem to stay in one place._

_Another dream then…_

_The dream continues with Henry and Emma running after Regina for half a day before they find her perched on the edge of a very steep ledge. _

"_Hey." Henry is the first to step forward. "What did you put in the box?"_

_Regina sighs and shrugs. "It doesn't matter. You'll never trust it. But I only meant good this time." She smiles sadly at Emma. "A blanket you can wear whenever you want to conceive a child. That's all."_

"_That's all?" Emma shouts. "Regina, what the fuck? Who else would I have a baby with?" Her eyes go dim for a second and then she adds, "I think we're dreaming…"_

When Emma wakes up, yet again, she is with Regina in a bed in front of a now cold and blackened fireplace, and Regina is snoring beside her.

Emma tries not to laugh with relief and really, amusement, because Regina snoring is priceless. Anyone else would have been elbowed awake and told to leave Emma's bed, by now. Instead, Emma lifts blankets and covers more of Regina with them.

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**Memories Cursed.**

Henry is not as happy as he thought he might be, when the residents of Storybrooke regain their memories.

It happens just after his moms have a huge, public fight in front of the Indian restaurant where Regina buys take-out with her son in tow.

Emma is there, eating dinner with the Stranger.

…and Regina _loses_ it on her.

Just _loses _it.

Henry has never seen his mother lose control in such a way. It should scare him, watching as Emma flounders and Regina screams and throws her food (her food!)…well, it's kind of funny. At first.

And then Emma tries to calm Regina, and even kisses her…

Kisses her!

Henry is momentarily stunned by this act. But it makes a whole lot of things click into place. Like how his mothers tolerate one another even after mean things have been said. And how he keeps finding evidence that Emma has been to the house.

Henry suddenly realizes-and he will rewind to this moment later in his adult life-that Emma was not supposed to destroy Regina in order to bring back their happy endings. She was supposed to…whatever…love…her…or…something…

Henry tries to process this information while Emma holds onto Regina who is now sobbing. The Stranger winks at Henry and sneaks past them all.

And then the sound of footsteps can be heard all around Henry. Footsteps like clunking and scraping and stomping, and all over what feels to him to be a hum-like the hum that fills his home when Regina is really angry about something. For a brief moment, Henry remembers a movie about zombies that he downloaded onto his computer before Regina found out and deleted it. The zombies are coming for them, Henry knows. Except that they're alive and they're people and they're all very angry. Angry at Regina.

In that moment, Henry also realizes something else. He actually does love his mother. Whatever Regina has done, however frightened she likes to make everyone around her…she's still his mom.

And the townspeople are going to kill her if she doesn't leave fast.

"Mom. Mom." Henry is chanting it like a mantra by the time Mary and David appear at the doorway-their faces awash with a mixture of rage and sadness. "Mom…" Henry steps between his two mothers and the people who are, essentially, his grandparents. "Mom…run."

"What?" Regina has finally noticed Henry again. She turns in Emma's arms and watches as the sidewalk begins to fill up.

"Run." Henry repeats. "Please. We'll come and find you. But…you have to go." His slight frame is shaking by now.

Regina runs.


	13. Chapter 13

Storybrooke:

Shifting Winds in Present Days.

A short time before the curse breaks (and it breaks many times over in many different versions of the same reality, but Regina takes a long time to explain this properly to Emma), the Mayor and the Sheriff begin to make small gestures toward one another that almost seem to have been born of kindness and caring.

Almost.

Utterances in times ahead make Storybrooke realities shift and slide and realign many times over. Something about Regina's attempt at wishing to be kinder-in retrospect-to others, changes the course of things past, present and future.

There is a time when things settle, in a way, into a kind of angry equilibrium in which Emma and Regina barely tolerate one another, but speak often about the other woman to any who will listen. This, somehow, is healthier for them than all the angry sex they tried to have in other realities.

Sidney is tired of trying to get into Regina's pants only to hear Regina's latest diatribe about the Sheriff.

By Valentines day, he is back with whatever powerful man will have him. He likes powerful men even more than powerful women, so for a time Sidney is content.

Ruby has heard it all so many times that her own brief desires at an affair with the attractive former-bounty-hunter, dissipate.

"We'll just be friends," Ruby decides. She tells Emma this on Valentines Day, behind Granny's, where she does not try to kiss the Sheriff, and they do not run into an alleyway for a quick shag. Ruby has a vague idea that this evening could have gone in more exciting directions, but drinks with her friends and a quiet night after that, feel like a good idea suddenly.

In this version of Storybrooke, nobody is getting laid.

Until, of course, Valentines Day which is seriously both Emma and Regina's least favorite day of the year.

Neither woman makes any kinds of plans for the day with the exception of working and, in Regina's case, visiting an old 'friend' at the hospital.

"Have him back in 30 minutes." Regina says something along those lines and Emma leaps at the chance to spend time with her-their-kid.

When Emma returns to the station, Gold is looking even angrier than usual. But he has a weird teacup with him and it seems to give the man some kind of comfort.

Emma's relief staff person comes in because he had a fight with his wife.

It is still early when Emma finds herself walking in the direction of Regina's house before she checks herself and wonders what the hell she is doing.

Then, on impulse, Emma runs into the only store in Storybrooke that sells really good wine, and drops a ridiculous amount on two bottles. At the last minute, Emma lunges toward a heart shaped box of candy with a picture of two puppies on it, and blushes bright red when the cashier snickers.

On her way to Regina's, Emma tries to fool herself into thinking that this does not matter. She is saving a bottle of wine for herself, and the first will simply be a gift. In fact, Emma will even eat the chocolates herself. But then she realizes that she has the perfect reason to do something nice for the Mayor. The truth is…Emma genuinely wants to thank the woman for letting Emma see Henry.

The wine is an excuse to cross the boundaries that Regina drew after the whole playground incident. It is a risky move, but Emma wants to take it-to return the small kindness that Regina showed her with some token gesture.

Regina's eyes are pure fire when Emma shows up on her doorstep.

And then, somehow, without a word exchanged, those wheels that always move in Regina's head come up with two things at once. First and foremost, Regina knows that she has somewhere to be that night and Emma's unwelcome arrival should give her the hour she needs. Secondly, and surprisingly, Regina feels a stab of compassion at the woman whose eyes read 'don't kick me any more than I've already been kicked'.

Emma is, as a result, invited to watch Henry while Regina visits a sick friend.

Henry decides to act like an actual kid, on this night, so they have fun doing normal stuff that doesn't involve any Cobra operations. Or whatever. They build a fort and Emma makes hot chocolate, and the normalcy makes her heart hurt just a little bit. But not in a terrible way. By the time Henry is ready to sleep, Emma is so full of gushy sentiment that she can barely stop herself from crying as she closes the kid's door.

"What's the matter?" Regina's voice shocks Emma who slams a hand over her chest and yelps through her tears.

"Regina, you scared the crap out of me." Emma wipes hard at her cheeks with her wrists and glares at a woman who genuinely seems to want to know what the hell is wrong.

Regina steps closer, a look on her face like she's Spock and doesn't understand feelings or something dumb like that.

"You regret missing his life." Regina says quietly. Almost empathetically…like she actually feels something about it all…

And there is the breakthrough the changes all their futures.

Neither woman knows it, but a burst of compassion makes the difference between some surviving and everybody dying in Storybrooke.

Regina shakes her head in confusion and they freeze in the moment. Before…

"wine?" Emma blurts out almost as quickly as Regina turns on her heel to leave this strange scene.

"yes." Regina sighs with relief and they make their way to the kitchen.

Emma does not ask where Regina has been, that night, but she is fairly certain that it isn't someplace romantic. Regina smells slightly like the hand sanitizer that Mary Margaret had in her apartment before Emma nixed its uses. Emma guesses, correctly, that Regina has been to a hospital.

They sit in Regina's study, across from one another, which should be awkward but strangely isn't. They talk about town business and by-laws, and the conversation is almost normal.

In the meantime, the first bottle of wine disappears, and Emma has to admit to herself that walking home will be brutal. So she stays and offers to open the second bottle of wine.

Regina follows Emma to the kitchen and that is when she spots the chocolates.

Which causes an epic gale of laughter from the Mayor.

"What? I like chocolate." Emma shrugs. "Candy is candy, however stupid the box looks." She thrusts the box toward Regina who shakes her head but opens it and hands it right back. For some reason, Regina seems to enjoy the sight of Emma eating junk food.

Regina starts to berate Emma for her eating habits, but closes her mouth instead. Regina is the one who leans in first. Emma can only feel light headed and almost faint, as she lets Regina taste the wine and caramel on her tongue.

They are both surprised when Regina's arms wind around Emma's neck Emma's hands move up and down the material of Regina's jacket. Their tongues are cool and then warm, searching each other's mouths before Emma cups the back of Regina's head and angles her in a way that deepens the kissing and makes both women restless and hot.

They are meant to be doing this. That is all there is to it.

And it has happened before. Of this much, Emma is sure.

"This changes nothing." Emma says before she crawls into bed next to Regina. They are naked and sort of chaste as they settle together, before Emma decides that the pulse in Regina's neck is in need of kissing.

"It changes some things," Regina replies with a contented sigh. She feels like she has returned home again.

As Emma rolls on top of Regina and they move together beneath cool sheets, something changes in Storybrooke. For just a moment, those with ill intentions feel their wills drained.

And for the same amount of time, those who only wish for happiness, feel hopeful again.

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**Forest Escape.**

Regina leaves through the backdoor of the restaurant she is cornered in, on the day the curse breaks. Emma is left with a frightened looking Henry and an enraged mob outside. She tries to reason with them, but before darkness falls, they have torches and pitchforks (Emma actually laughs at that one) and random horses.

Horses are suddenly everybody's favorite way to travel.

"My Mom will be on foot," Henry whispers to Emma, "But I think she has some good hiding places…"

"What's that, Henry? Speak up now." Mary—Snow?—is smiling in a somewhat frightening way and even Emma feels like the woman is alien suddenly.

Two days later, no one has found Regina. So Emma goes out with a backpack of food, water, and clothes, and leaves Henry alone in Regina's house behind locked doors. She and Henry have stayed there ever since the curse broke, because Emma cannot face Mary and David and their fury.

It takes a good two hours of walking before Emma hears the voice she has been waiting for. In fact Emma realizes that she has missed Regina's voice almost as much as the rest of her.

"You are not serious." Regina is behind Emma, leaning against a tree. Her nostrils flare at the smell of whatever is in Emma's pack. "Is this a trap? Because if it is…" Regina walks slowly toward Emma until they are close enough to touch. And then Regina's hands slide up Emma's arms and grip her tightly. "If it is a trap," She says again, "then I'll have to hurt you. And believe it or not, dear, I don't want to do that."

"I believe you." Emma whispers. "And no. Not a trap."

Still, Emma frowns and Regina looks as bitter as thought she had eaten one of those apples that turned to rot the moment the curse ended.

They are in the woods for many hours, trying to come to some sort of understanding, and then the darkness makes seeing even an inch in front of them impossible. Regina changes into the clothing Emma brought, and Emma can't help but stare. They end up making out against a damp, moss covered tree, before Regina says 'ew' and breaks away to pick green out of her hair.

By midnight, Emma is trying to start a fire, and Regina is refusing to help her. Despite the weather, which has turned to a cold, hard rain, Regina would rather sit in the open and suffer. Except that Emma isn't really all that great at fire starting. She keeps trying to use large pieces of wood and keeps her lighter on them in the hopes that they will start. Emma is creating smoke rather than flames and they still do not have a place to sleep.

Regina sighs in annoyance. "Oh fine, just let me." She says aloud.

"Thought you'd never ask." Emma sighs and leans on her heels. "I can build a lean-to."

"Well then, have at it Girl Scout." Regina rolls her eyes and waves a dismissive hand.

"Haha, was that a joke?" Emma chatters as she looks for trees. She has a small ax in her bag and uses it for enough saplings to tie together and throw a tarp over. "The Evil Queen makes a joke. Another curse is broken and the Kingdom rejoices-stand up comedians now welcome in Storybrooke."

Regina gets to her feet and brushes a bug off of her slacks before sitting heavily again. "Not if you show up the Evil Queen's comedy act, dear," She mutters.

Emma shouts with sudden laughter. "Another joke!" She adds. "You're on a roll…Dear." Emma says this last thing with a huge grin which actually earns a chuckle from Regina.

After dinner, they are both utterly silent which is both weird and comfortable at once. Emma keeps thinking of stuff to say-random observations about the moss on the tree which does _not _provide them with direction-but clams up. For some reason, Emma thinks back to a foster family she stayed with. They had placed Emma in her own tent but had a large 'family' tent for the rest. It was the worst camping trip ever but the foster father did teach Emma a few things. Of all in that particular family, he was the only person who was nice to her, showing her actual survival skills that his 'own' children wanted nothing to do with.

"You're going to make creases." Regina interrupts Emma's angry silence and presses one finger to the spot between Emma's eyes. "Wrinkles before your time. What were you thinking about?"

"Foster father." Emma mumbles, shifting her weight on the log. She wants to move closer to Regina-purely for warmth, of course-but resists the urge. She looks to the side and sees that Regina is glowering. "No, he was nice. Not a…you know, creep or anything."

"Oh." Regina frowns, nonetheless. "Well that's good news anyway." Perhaps it is guilt from being the person who actually caused Emma's exile in the foster system, or perhaps she is also simply cold, but Regina is the one who moves closer in the end. She nudges Emma's arm until the other woman gets the hint and puts it around Regina's shoulders.

"Really?" Emma grunts, shuffling Regina closer still. "What is this? Do you wanna make out again? Neck like teenagers before the guy in the hockey mask shows?"

"Perhaps later, Sheriff Swan." Regina sighs and allows herself a moment of comfort. "it is terribly damp and chilly and…well, never mind. Just. Deal with it." She pats Emma's thigh and Emma realizes that it is she being comforted, without having to give up her pride on the matter.

They sleep huddled together beneath the wooden structure that Emma has made. It is all really stupid, because the sleeping bag barely fits them, and Emma is cold and wet and could easily be comfortable back somewhere in town. The fire is out, and the rain is annoying enough to keep people from finding them, but Emma doesn't sleep well until some time in the early morning.

Emma is jolted awake by the warm body that slides atop hers in the night. Regina kisses Emma's neck until she is certain that the slumbering woman is fully awake, and then begins to move until Emma gets the hint and reaches between their bodies to touch Regina.

And then Regina is holding to the back of Emma's neck, staring intently at her in the darkness. Regina's hips move up and down and in hard, small circles, while Emma's fingers rotate inside of her.

When Regina comes, she muffles her cries next to Emma's left ear. It is all sort of romantic, and when Emma circles her free arm around Regina's waist, they hold each other tightly.

Emma is the first to speak. "You'll have to find something better than sleeping in the open like this." Her fingers wiggle inside of Regina which makes the woman gasp. "A cabin? Some underground hobbit hole?"

Regina sighs and smiles against Emma's cheek. She begins to move again, very slowly this time. And when Emma starts thrusting slightly against her, Regina chuckles.

"You'll protect me, won't you Sheriff." Regina seems to find this funny. "From those big bad people in Storybrooke who want my head on a stick?"

"Huh?" Emma is temporarily distracted when Regina slides down her body, shoves her brown Sheriff's uniform shirt up, and undoes her pants. "Why are you laughing?" Emma looks down at Regina's head which has begun to move up and down as Regina's tongue slides…

"Oh god…" Emma groans. "You can't do that here. It's so wet."

"You're wet." Regina gives a dirty little chuckle at her lame joke and resumes licking almost too hard for Emma's liking.

Emma is surprised when she comes. Regina gentles her movements and climbs up to place a firm kiss on Emma's neck.

"Anyway." Regina adds with a smile that Emma can feel against her skin. "I already have a place. I just thought I'd make you camp out in the open."

And just like every other time Regina is a total ass, Emma just sighs and accepts it. "Make me breakfast in the morning and I'll forgive you." She murmurs against Regina's damp hair before falling asleep again.

The next afternoon, no one in town is surprised when Emma returns empty handed, wearing a silly grin and sniffling at the onset of a cold.

The townspeople let Emma and Regina's little game continue for at least a month before Gold pays a visit to Regina's tiny cabin, and casts a seriously fucked up memory spell on her.


	14. Chapter 14

Author's Notes:

1. I have to admit it now-Tell-Tale Hearts is AU completely, as of the blackout and Grumpy backstory episode. I just don't feel like writing between the lines of Regina's unravelling unless I control the unravelling in shorter fics. I will do something with the title and the whole Poe reference and the fact that Regina's buried hearts give her away.

2. In Wonderland, their old life together, Emma is Alice and Regina is the White Queen who moves backward through time. which is AU within AU because the only people who ship those two together as adult women are probably in the Burton Wonderland fandom.

3. I'm moving Alice and Regina to Oz for a little while, because Wonderland is where they died together (not even remotely related to the original 'Looking Glass' story and totally AU there as well). and in Oz, Regina will meet up with her daughter (haha, I'm skipping ahead with my stupid idea and readers can now picture Fairuza Balk. and this is like serious AU because there has been NO hint of a kid coming out of Regina's womb, so I think this is more like past life AU). In Oz...Emma and Regina will just be their Storybrooke selves, roaming about trying to solve this big stupid crisis I've invented to keep the story going (I think it's climate change, or the earth turning on its axis, I haven't figured that out yet).

4. the story now has a timeline. Emma and Regina together in Wonderland. Then they have their lives in Fairytale land (where Emma is just a newborn of course) then their Storybrooke lives.

Now the next chappy….

[warnings, nc-17 with graphic bdsm references and Swan Queen lovemaking].

**Storybrooke:**

**Conversations in the Dark.**

It is present day, in Storybrooke—whatever that means.

Regina has mistakenly allowed Emma to sleep over. The blackout, just the night before, has been fixed, but the bedside clock flashes on midnight, over and over. Regina unplugs the damned thing. It was a present from Henry, though, so she doesn't smash it.

Clocks are useless, as far as Regina is concerned. They measure time in the most simplistic of ways. Not the way Time actually operates.

Regina rolls over and presses herself to Emma's side. Emma grunts and shifts away but Regina shifts closer. She is feeling oddly affectionate, on this day, and wants the same from the Sheriff….

…who nearly falls off the bed when Regina lays a hand on her belly and a cheek on her chest.

"Argh!" Emma muffles her shout with one hand at the last minute. She lays there, wide eyed, while Regina rubs her stomach in this really sweet, totally disconcerting way.

"I have decided," Regina says thoughtfully, "that I enjoy having you over. You warm my bed." She wants to add, "and me" but thinks it too cheesy. So she just smiles.

"heh, yeah, well…" Emma stays flat on her back, away from Regina. She squirms. Regina frowns. It takes Emma a full three minutes to give in. "You can come here." Emma says, sort of gruffly, and shifts to her right so that she's fully on the bed and Regina is against her.

Emma has two spare outfits at Regina's now, but she borrows a thick, tan turtle neck, because it is chilly out. Regina tries to talk Emma into a skirt but Emma goes with jeans. "next time," Emma promises and leans forward.

They both stare, surprised. But then Regina meets Emma halfway and they kiss goodbye. Neither woman says 'have a good day', they just walk to their cars, shaking their heads.

Regina is on her way to Gold's shop, before she knows it. She has questions for that damned…man, or whatever he is. And one of those questions is a repeat.

"How did you know?" Regina storms into the shop and blurts out the words. Of course he is sitting right there—that idiot—anticipating her every blasted move.

"How did I know what, your majesty?" He asks. He is polishing some stupid thing. Some brass cup.

Regina falters. The cup looks familiar, like something she once had. "Her! I mean…Nothing," She mutters. "Have a…good…" She says 'day' to a gust of wind which takes it from her lips and carries it away.

Regina's hands shake as she grips the steering wheel in her car. She grabs for her phone, sees a text from Henry and looks at it. He wants Chinese food for dinner. Lately, he's been eating like a horse. Regina clenches her jaw at the thought. Horse…like a…

…she swears and slams her hands on the steering wheel. No one can hear her, but from his shop window, Gold watches. His eye flits sideways, to a painting of a steed he remembers from Regina's old life. Gold decides on the spot, that this painting will be Regina's next birthday present.

Regina drives away, watching in her rearview mirror as Gold cackles like an idiot from his window.

**Storybrooke**

**After the Curse…**

Regina is under house arrest for two years after the curse ends. But before her house arrest begins, Gold throws a memory curse on her and banishes her to the forest for some time.

It only puts a dent in the anger aimed at her.

It does not take long for the townspeople to grow angry at the whole 'house arrest' thing. Even if Regina's memory was erased by Gold, most think that this wasn't harsh enough—even if it did involve Regina forgetting to wear clothes for a good month before 'somebody' (likely Ruby, Emma suspects) left items at the edge of where Regina camped in the forest.

Gold skulks around at the edge of the woods now, living in a large cabin where he weaves and visits daily with the only woman who will tolerate him. Emma thinks that people still call him Gold because his real name scares the shit out of everybody. He's still a smartass (Henry insists that this isn't the official word for characters like Gold though) but his memory curse on Regina gave the town a few months to figure things out without her presence.

It isn't that everybody even wants Regina in jail. What would be the point? Ever since Regina's memory returned to full strength, she has kept to herself. A few just want her arbitrarily and severely punished—which Emma and Henry cannot get on board with. Few are happy that Regina is enjoying the company of her son and of her son's other mother (and maybe more where Regina is concerned, many now think) while supposedly having been banished. Out of sight, out of mind, should not involve the town Sheriff taking care of Regina's every waking need.

Over time, Emma grows tired of feeling torn between her duties to the town and her…whatever it is she feels for Regina.

Regina is hurt, the day Henry and Emma move out, but she won't show it. She stays in her garden all afternoon, alone, until Emma returns because she 'forgot something'. They spend a half hour making out near a bunch of sunflowers before Emma reluctantly leaves for Mary's. Everyone calls Mary 'Snow', again, but Emma is having a hard time with that. She walks there, utterly spent.

As time goes by, Emma begins to show her anger more and more. As all of Regina's secrets are revealed, one by one, Emma feels her body buzz with frustration.

One day Snow says, "I'm not happy with who you're sleeping with." And throws a plate on the ground and storms from the kitchen where Henry, Emma and James are trying to enjoy a nice dinner.

Emma leaves and immediately runs to Regina's, where she stands and screams at the house.

Which is…kinda fucked up.

But still, that one screaming episode notwithstanding, Emma sees Regina every day.

There is an angry blow up, one day, when Emma is sitting at work and remembers again that Regina killed Graham.

Killed. Graham.

A relatively decent guy. And even though Regina assures Emma that Graham is alive in some other realm, Emma is frustrated by the whole situation.

So, Emma storms to Regina's house, wanting to punish her somehow.

She ends up finding Regina in the tub, yet again, playing with the jets and getting pleasantly buzzed at noon.

"Is that pot?" Emma had arrived wanting to shout and curse and throw things, but now just wants to get stoned with Regina and sit in her enormous Jacuzzi tub. "Where did you even find that?" This is the silliest house arrest Emma has ever heard of. Total bullshit. Regina is suffering only because she is lonely. Otherwise, her setup is pretty sweet. Emma thinks all of this as she undresses and tosses her clothes everywhere.

"Grew it." Regina grins saucily and hands the joint over. "The state of Maine will not be impressed by a small town Sheriff indulging, but I think that that's the least of our worries." Aware of Emma's eyes on her ass, Regina crawls on all fours to adjust the water while Emma climbs in behind her. The water is hot where Regina is, and makes beads of sweat instantly appear on her neck. Emma wants suddenly to lick that moisture, despite her anger.

Regina pauses and looks over her left shoulder. Emma has gotten back up and already put out the joint. "Not in the mood for that, darling?" Regina asks. A sudden thrill makes the disgraced Mayor shiver a little. "What are you in the mood for? And by the way that was a difficult amount to come by so…oof!" Regina has been shoved backward, so that her ass is almost in Emma's face.

"Safe word?" Emma asks gruffly. Her hands knead and scrape lightly and knead again, squeezing and releasing before she leans over slightly and licks at the base of Regina's spine. Another shiver follows. Two fingers slide and arch easily into Regina's pussy without warning.

"I'm not sure…" Regina admits with a gasp. "We have time. Call in your Deputy?"

"I have an hour." Emma says. "A full lunch hour within which to rant and curse at you. Now. Safe word. What is it?" Emma speaks insistently. "You don't get to control everything." Emma growls, her fingers sliding even more easily in and out as Regina wiggles backward.

"Obviously not." Regina groans. "You've made that perfectly clear. Are you going to hurt me now?" She pauses. "The safe word is Donnie Darko." Weird. They watched that movie last week, because Regina has this whole time travel obsession now. "So what are you going to do?" Regina asks. "Will it hurt much?" Regina has sudden thoughts of candle wax and handcuffs and really anything that will allow her to externalize the frustration she feels and the pent up pain all brewing up like a dark cloud inside of her.

Emma considers it. "You ask me that far too often. You want a little pain? I can do that." Emma shifts her hand so that her forefinger and middle finger twist inside of Regina and then her thumb is rubbing where she has not really asked to go before. "Has anyone ever fucked you this way?" Emma wants to know.

Regina yelps. Her eyes go wide and she stares straight ahead. "No. And…what…"

"What? You don't like it up the ass?" Emma hums contentedly. "I think you love it. I think you love feeling totally fucking open to me, like I can do whatever I want with you and you'll have no choice but to love it."

"Touch…" Regina shakes her head and stops. "My clit. Please."

"Now now…" Emma caresses the small of Regina's back with her free hand. "You're not coming. I'm having too much fun." That simmering energy which leaves Emma frowning and sulking most of the time, comes to the surface in a new way now. They both feel it, like lava flowing between them.

Then, without warning, Emma reaches between Regina's spread thighs and starts playing with her clit. Hard and fast, flicking back and forth.

Regina screams.

And just as abruptly, Emma stops. And then laughs.

"Fuck you." Regina growls.

"There it is." Emma nods. "There's that anger. Surely I'm not the only one who's pissed off." She gets up on her kneels fully and starts pressing herself to the back of Regina's thigh. "Fuck, you get me so wet, so fucking turned on…and I'm so goddamned angry at you. At what you put me though." Emma's thumb thrusts fully in and out of Regina's ass, before she removes it and replaces it with two fingers on her free hand.

Four fingers, two and two, slap in and out, rotating, digging, circling—Emma tries it all. She grins as Regina arches backward, raising her hips higher. There is only the sound of the water and of Emma's fingers sucking wetly, in and out, for long minutes.

Emma is enthralled with the way her fingers disappear inside of Regina. She watches, mesmerized, and then she takes her fingers from Regina's pussy and brings them to Regina's lips. Regina immediately tastes herself and whimpers. The other two fingers are still in Regina's ass, but they don't move, they just settle and stay and fill her.

"Wait." Emma stops all movement and shakes her head. "This is just the start. I just want to get you wet. You're not allowed to come yet." She smacks Regina's ass, laughs a wicked laugh, and rubs the red mark she's made. She slaps again, rubs, then scratches sensitized skin lightly.

They end up in bed, after a brief delay when Emma calls into work.

Emma curves over Regina's body, kissing her jawline and biting her neck roughly.

"You're angry at me." Regina's hands stroke up and down Emma's chest, over her neck, avoiding her breasts because…well, because she hasn't been given permission to start anything yet.

"You've done terrible things, Gina." Emma says with a frown. "Terrible…" She keeps her upper body off of Regina's, hovering an inch from her. Their foreheads almost touch.

"Punishment through sadistic sexual play won't make those things go away." Regina decides. Her hands draw lazy circles over Emma's hips. "But it might be a release for us both…" Before she could finish her rambling contemplations, Emma pushes away and goes for the closet. She is agitated, wound up. Not just angry anymore.

"You could punish me." Regina says in a singsong voice from the bed. When Emma looks back, Regina is on her stomach, looking coy.

"Too easy." Emma smirks. "I'll smack that ass, but it won't be some cute little punishment for what you've done. I'll do it because I want to. And because up until now, you've controlled even me. You knew I'd go after you, knew I'd try to save you from the very people you've hurt the most." She reaches and grabs the things she's been searching for. Two leather bracelets and a pair of cuffs.

The thought of it…just tying Regina up and fucking her until she begs and begs…Emma freezes. She shakes her head and tries to remember that she actually cares about Regina, that this is about more than sex, has been for a long time now. But it's hard, hard to focus…

"Breathe." Regina whispers. She pulls Emma toward her and they kiss, softly, out of character for a moment.

And then Emma nods and Regina lifts her arms.

The leather fits perfectly, and just the smell and sight of it makes Regina wiggle a little. Emma uses cuffs, so that she can attach Regina's hands together and to the top slat of the headboard at once.

Nails dragged down Regina's torso make red marks, but more than that, they make Regina wiggle even more. Emma stares hard before she runs her nails up and down, harder this time. Regina's breathing picks up and she trembles a little.

"Wax or leather?" Emma asks with a charming sort of smile. She straddles Regina's tummy and rubs her own wetness there. The heat is delicious.

"I want. Fuck. I don't care. Just touch me." Regina strains her hips upward, trying to get contact.

"Ah ah ah." Emma lifts herself and reprimands Regina. "for that, I'm tying your feet…"

"No, no, I'll behave." Regina wants her legs around Emma's waist when she finally gets release, so she stops moving. "Wax." She decides. The leather crop isn't really Emma's thing—she never feels like she can relax and just enjoy using it, for fear of actually hurting Regina. And Regina likes the sight of it more than its actual use. But wax is controlled. And Regina wants long, hot, drawn out pain, with the rush of endorphins that follow. And then she wants Emma to fuck her rough and long. And she knows that she'll get exactly what she wants, if she lets Emma play at her own pace and control the situation…or at least appear to.

"Or…" Emma leans over, grabs one of her boots, and comes up with an enormous hunting knife.

Regina's eyes widen. "Donnie Darko!" she yelps. Emma chuckles and Regina relaxes again. "Another time, perhaps." Regina concedes when Emma smirks.

"Entirely too much talking." Emma decides. The mood is waning. And she doesn't want her anger to retreat to a deeper place, where she won't be able to find it until something spins out of control and she ends up actually hurting someone. Or herself.

The candle is lit and left on the bedside table and Emma returns to where Regina is tied. This time, she lays beside Regina, enjoying the way their nakedness contrasts with the deep purple sheets. Emma uses her hands to knead and stroke every part of Regina's body. The dip and curve of hip bones are particularly sensitive. The backs of knees, touched lightly, make Regina arch her back and jut her pelvis out. Emma pounces on sinfully firm breasts, sucking roughly and kneading equally so. She allows their centers to touch, just a little, and their bodies to rock together, before pulling away with a laugh.

"You told me to do my job. You set me up, using that idiot Glass. You implied that I was a bad mother. Told me to learn my place…" Emma speaks every word deliberately, slowly, but anger and pain are red hot at the base of her throat. She leans over, reaching for the candle. The first splash of wax is onto Emma's own hand. She hisses. But it isn't bad…

"Shut up." Emma growls when Regina starts to speak. "You speak when I say you can speak, understand?" The second splash of wax is on Regina's upper thigh. Regina jumps and her eyes go momentarily blank, confused, pained, and then there is another moan as Emma combines the sensation of momentary sting and burn, with two fingers delving lightly in the wetness between Regina's legs.

"That's your first taste." Emma mutters before pulling Regina's mouth to her own. She kisses her roughly, biting on that pouty lower lip…

"Oh please." Regina breathes. "Another. Please. Whatever you want. Just touch me. Everywhere."

Emma splashes wax onto Regina's chest. Once. Then twice. Then Regina's nipples are given alternately pinching and biting attention, depending on how fast Emma can move between each one.

Every other splash of wax leads to similar attention. Regina lets out a really loud groan when Emma leaves a trail of hot liquid on the sensitive skin between hip bone and pubic bone. For that one, Emma shuffles lower and Regina is rewarded with a tongue, warm and wet dragging through Regina's slit, touching her clit lightly at the very end.

And then Emma just pulls away. Her feet hit the floor and she stands at the side of the bed and looks Regina up and down.

Regina is a mess of desire and endorphins. She is covered in white wax in four small spots, and the rest of her skin is sweaty and blotchy. Her eyes are half lidded.

"You're beautiful." Emma decides. She reaches, almost curious, and traces one finger around Regina's left nipple. It is already hard and puckered and in desperate need of attention. "You haven't spoken." Emma smirks.

"You told me not to." Regina's voice is gravelly. She tries to stop her hips from gyrating but can't help it in the end. "Please." She starts.

"Please?" Emma raises one eyebrow and without warning, tears a piece of wax from Regina's skin, leaving a pink circle just over Regina's left breast.

Regina shouts and then presses her mouth closed. A tear leaks from the corner of one closed eye.

Emma uses her tongue to sooth the spot.

Then she uses her teeth to sooth the breast below it. The combination makes Regina scream.

Another piece of wax is removed, this time at the hip. Emma counters the sensation with two fingers, abruptly thrust inside of Regina…

Where Emma suddenly just wants to stay. She tries to be cold and detached, but Regina is squeezing her fingers like a fucking vice and Emma wants to those fingers sucked in further.

"Spread your legs." Emma demands. "Fuck my hand."

Regina gyrates, fully spread, her knees up slightly, and then rotates her hips hard.

"Oh please!" Regina screams again when Emma takes her hand away.

A second later, wax is taken from Regina's thigh, and for enduring the pain silently, Regina is rewarded with a tongue, when Emma slides down and pulls apart Regina's perfect ass cheeks.

"Oh not there. No…No…" Regina moans and flails. Her legs are so far up that Emma's tongue is playing at her ass. "Please…oh please…" Regina wonders if this might make her come. And then Emma reaches and smacks—hard—against the pink spot where wax had been poured on her thigh. Emma licks a wet line upward and to the right, biting the inside of Regina's thigh before sucking her clit between eager lips.

"Just want to fuck you into submission." Emma mutters against slippery flesh. "I could leave you here, first. I could leave you writhing on these restraints. Impossibly turned on." Her tongue pulls away for emphasis and she looks up into Regina's panicked eyes with a smirk.

Instead, Emma slides upward and grinds her hips against Regina's. Three fingers are thrust inside and Regina wails as she pulls them in, wanting that fullness. Just before Emma uses her thumb to touch Regina's clit, she reaches around and yanks the last pool of wax away. Three fingers become four, and Regina moans helplessly.

Emma sucks and bites at Regina's neck as they fuck. She can feel Regina's heels, smacking against her own ass, but she forgives the way that Regina is using her feet to guide Emma's hips because the woman is now groveling, begging Emma to fuck her harder, faster, to make her come, to make her...

Flood the sheets with wetness. Apparently. And cover Emma with it as well. Which is just intense, and intimate and far away all at once.

And then their roles are equalized and Emma feels some of her anger escape her. Something about being covered in Regina's juices has made her feel too connected to just stay angry. The smell of sex is perfect. Earthy, perfume, all Regina's and Emma's, all mixed up.

Their lips crash together and Regina grips her restraints and presses harder to the bed. Her first real orgasm is quiet and deep and makes her want more. Because when she gushed all over the sheets, she didn't exactly feel that clenching inside, but she did want more and want to give more. And fuck, it just isn't too much. Regina's cries out in frustration.

Emma pulls back and looks, concerned, wondering if they've gone too far…

Their eyes meet and Regina says, "Keep going darling…Fuck me. Please. I beg you." And with that, she squirms and pulls Emma in deeper. And Emma slaps her hand against Regina's clit, again and again, loving the way it swells against her palm.

And then Regina is coming again and sobbing as she shakes and clings with her legs. Emma slides down, yet again, and lavishes attention on Regina's clit. Over-sensitized or not, Emma sucks and nibbles until another small orgasm makes Regina's sex contract and release.

Emma undoes Regina's restraints, ignoring the scream of her own impending but interrupted orgasm. She blinks, blue eyes staring and staring. Searching Regina's face for some sign of comprehension. For a sign that the constant motion of Regina's brain isn't distracting the woman from actually feeling something.

Then she pulls Regina into her arms and lays on her back, staring into space instead. Because sometimes, looking right at someone she cares about is too much for Emma.

They lay together, Regina calming down while Emma strokes her back.

"Sorry." Regina mutters against Emma's arm.

"Yeah." Emma grunts and shifts, knocking their foreheads together and nuzzling Regina's cheek. "You really should be. I'll work harder next time at making you even sorrier."

Regina sighs and frowns. "I want to. Fix this, I mean. I want to stop thinking ten steps ahead of everything I do." She presses her lips to Emma's collarbone.

"yeah." Emma can feel tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. "I'd like that." She sniffles and turns Regina in her arms, looking down at her again. "But you know…" their lips brush lightly before Emma continues, thinking it through. "You shouldn't throw away all that is really brilliant about you."

Regina rolls her eyes at that one and bites Emma's shoulder in retaliation for her kindness.

**Storybrooke:**

**Futureworlds.**

The crisis comes right when Emma and Regina have found some equilibrium.

Henry is being home schooled, by Mary and Regina. They want him to be ready for a time when he'll leave Storybrooke. Emma likes to join their schooling sessions from time to time, especially when it involves botany and other subjects that Mary and Regina have particularly astute knowledge of.

A walk through the woods sees Henry's grandmother and mother—nemeses or not—talking animatedly about a particular bird and a particular berry it likes but which kills mammals and…

It makes Emma sort of weepy. Seeing her family so happy. Having a family at all.

"Fuck." Emma curses, tripping over a tree root. Henry laughs but catches her arm and Regina and Mary give her annoyed looks until they notice the tears. Emma spends the rest of the walk with her arm linked through Regina's, both women admiring the way Mary treats Henry. The way she talks to him like he's her equal.

Mary has stopped throwing plates over the subject of Regina. Regina's house arrest is ongoing, but it isn't unpleasant. She keeps to her garden, and Emma pretends not to live at the mansion with her until she gives up and just moves back in. One morning, barely a week after Emma's return, Regina turns toward her—they are in the kitchen, Emma remembers it for a long time—and Regina puts down the knife she has been using to take the tough little strings off of the snow peas they're using for dinner…

Regina says, very quietly but very directly,

"I love you. Very much."

Emma looks up and nods, but can't speak. She steps toward Regina and puts a hand on Regina's chest. Right where her heart beats fast, like the speed of a horse running…

Something in Emma's own chest loosens. Some old grief lifts.

"I love you, 'Gina." Emma is nearly breathless when she says the words. She breathes hard through her nose, then leans into the kiss Regina offers her. When they embrace it feels like they breathe together somehow.

Emma and Regina fight from time to time, but making up is always epic. Because Regina decided to treat Emma with a slight bit of kindness, back in the day—which is really sometime in the future—something has shifted and turned around on itself, and Emma does not look anywhere else for affection. In time, Emma forgets to think about going back to Boston. She and Henry will stay until the kid has to go off to College or travel (his choice, Emma argues, while Regina huffs and puffs at the very thought). And then something happens to make Emma decide that she'll stay indefinitely…

…if not in Storybrooke, at least by Regina's side.


	15. Chapter 15

**Storybrooke **

**Post-curse haste. **

Regina is shouting in her dreams.

"_It isn't how children should behave!" she tries to make this point to Emma, who stands in front of Henry. In Henry's hands are two toys. One is a plastic gun with an orange piece on the end. The other is a reproduction of a nuclear warhead. _

_There is a pregnant pause. And then Emma says,_

"_I agree."_

Regina wakes up slowly, to soothing words and a warm hand stroking her shoulder.

"Nightmare." Regina mutters, turning to grasp for the glass of water she always leaves on Emma's side of the bed. She is covered in a light sheen of sweat and doesn't allow herself to touch Emma as a result.

"I figured." Emma sighs, relieved, and slides down to lay fully on her back. She is naked, they both are, though they didn't have sex. It is too hot to touch, so they have barely touched all night. Emma lets herself feel the brief thrill of Regina's presence when a hand reaches out and strokes her chest in the darkness. Emma sighs with contentment and then Regina falls asleep again.

Regina has been under house arrest for two years by this point. And a few things have changed. Alliances have shifted. Snow White no longer spends all of her time with the Dwarves. She instead spends much of her time with James, with Henry, and with Emma; and she keeps a close watch on Regina. In a strange way, the surveillance is comforting to Regina. It makes her feel cared for. She knows how abnormal that is.

Emma leaves just after an early breakfast of cold black tea and a cake that Regina concocted to force her into healthier eating habits. The cake is sweetened with maple syrup, so Emma can ignore the grains and berries. Maple syrup, Regina has decided, is the greatest thing about this supposedly Cursed world.

They kiss goodbye at the door and Regina resolves to talk to Emma more. She feels distant and doesn't like it. But her dreams seem, often, to take her far from this place.

Emma, for her part, can tell that something is wrong. Instead of trying to figure it out, she has officially (according to a cricket turned psychiatrist) regressed to somewhere around the age of fifteen. This was a bad year for Emma. It was the year she lost her virginity in the backseat of a much older man's car. Sort of how Regina lost hers. With shady consent and painfully frozen motions. Fifteen was also the year when six of Emma's foster placements broke down. Six homes, six new families, and ultimately, six rejections. She had thought it a record, but her best friend Stacy motored through seven homes.

Emma has been trying not to tell Regina any of these things, and doesn't really want to tell Archie either, but she has basically been begged by Mary to talk to somebody. Emma's mother is as stubborn and persistent as Emma herself, so despite her thirty years (which apparently translate to fifteen at the moment) Emma tries to listen.

Emma walks home, which takes almost an hour.

She isn't in the mood to deal with the person she finds in Mary's kitchen. Person or…whatever the hell he is.

Gold—Emma cannot call him by his real name, it's just too creepy—is eating eggs and toast with Henry like they're old friends. Mary is still Mary, but now Emma is the only person who calls her this. Emma takes Mary aside and they speak in whispers.

"Whatever crisis we're in now, it's bad. Worse, even, than before. And despite the psychotic tricks Regina and Rumpel have pulled in the past, we have to keep them both near. Not only Regina—and not because you have feelings for her." Mary pauses and glances over her shoulder. "I've said it before." Her eyes are intent on her daughter's. "It's better to keep enemies…" She waves a dismissive hand at Emma's objection and finishes, "…close."

Emma spends the rest of the day inside, watching Henry play his video games, helping the kid with reading and math—basically creating a homeschool day even though it's not technically her strong suit. It's a good day though. It's good to just have some normalcy with Henry.

Gold is told to return for dinner. He takes off sometime around noon. Emma does not have a chance to talk to Mary about her concerns for most of the afternoon.

Finally, Mary and Emma have a chance alone again. Mary has stopped all of her obsessive cleaning, to reassure her rather stressed daughter.

Emma breaths hard through her nose and leans back on her heels. "Gold." She mutters. "That man…"

"Is right behind you dearie." His voice grates less on Emma's nerves than before, but the shrill tones have returned despite his utter fatigue with this life.

Dinner is an odd affair. But Gold is polite and inquisitive—caring, even—when the subject of Regina arises. He hopes that she is well. Worries about her mental health after so many decades of loneliness. Emma wants to stab him with her fork but resists the urge. She looks at Henry with a frown. Henry slumps in his char when the subject of Regina's wellbeing comes up.

Emma leaves the adults at the table and ushers Henry upstairs sometime after tea is served. It is only 10pm but Emma can see the kid—he'll be a kid to her until he's an old man, she decides—yawning, bored with the adult's incessant chatter. Emma clutches her wine to her chest.

"I'd like to see her more often," Henry decides. He's been over at Regina's once a week since he and Emma rescued Regina from the woods and from Gold's last little memory charm. It isn't much, considering the fact that Regina raised him. And there are things that Emma can't do on her own—things she suspects Regina better understands. Emma knows that Henry and Regina went through years of therapy together, and there are things about Henry that Emma just can't figure out. Like how he freaks out when his socks aren't folded properly or when his books are not in a particular order.

Henry is reading the latest angst-ridden tale about young people eating each other or killing each other or turning into werewolves (Ruby gave him a halfway decent book on that particular subject recently) or whatever, but on this night Henry isn't interested in delving into his gory story just yet.

"Rumpel…I mean Mr. Gold thinks he did her a favor, you know." Henry says matter of factly. "He figures…a memory charm would make her feel less guilty. Help everybody to move on."

Emma finishes her wine with a gulp. "yeah?" She nods and then shrugs. "That sort of makes sense. As much sense as anything."

Henry scrunches his face in confusion about something. Emma waits.

"I had a dream the other night." Henry starts. He picks nervously at his blanket. Blue, plaid—sometimes his taste in décor is like a much older man's.

"Yes?" Emma encourages after silence stretches between them.

Henry nods. His eyes are intent on a tree branch which scrapes his window lightly. Before sleep he'll get Emma to knock it away, but for now he continues. "You and my mom, you were living together, with me. But I was really little. I mean I saw myself—as really little. And I kept trying to ask you what was going on. You both seemed really angry."

Emma remembers what Regina said once, about layers of reality, about alternate pathways they could have taken—did take, in some cases. Jeez, did it scar their kid or something…

"It's kinda cool." Henry adds thoughtfully, interrupting Emma's thoughts. "I mean everybody deserves a second chance, right?"

By the time Emma leaves Henry's room (it takes twenty minutes to knock the branch down so that he won't have nightmares about somebody climbing in his bedroom window) she feels a lot better than she has in a very, very long time.

"Hey Pops!" She quips at David who smiles sweetly at her. He's such a nice guy—too nice, at times. It's usually his downfall. But for tonight, Emma is relieved that she can just relax and leave Mary and David together to deal with something she just doesn't feel like facing. Not yet, anyway. She's sure she'll have to soon.

Before Gold leaves, he turns his attention to Emma briefly.

"I'm sure that Ms. Swan could use a ride." Gold smirks around his words but his eyes do not give away anything but polite interest.

"Fine." Emma snarls, grabbing her jacket and nodding at her parents. "I'll be at Regina's. If you both need me."

"Will you be back by morning?" Snow asks. But her hands go up defensively, "Not that you have to be. Just curious."

Emma thinks about it. She picks at a sliver of paint that is pealing from one of the worn out side tables in Mary's living room.

"I'll be with Regina all day tomorrow." Emma decides. "I'll be back to pick Henry up for dinner over there."

"No problem," Mary smiles though there is still that mysterious look in her eye. "I'll drive Henry over myself. I'd like to speak with Regina." She says the words with that air of authority that she and David take on these days. They are becoming the town's leaders, more and more, and in ways that will eventually astound Emma she is suddenly sure.

Emma leaves shortly after, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Mary's request. It isn't her business. Mary and Regina have shit between them to sort out.

Gold, of course, proceeds to start a bizarre conversation about a completely random topic.

"You met him, didn't you?" Gold asks, steering away from Mary's house.

Emma sighs and waits.

"The Hatter." Gold adds. "Regina's idiot savant. Always telling women to speak only when he already agrees."

"Ummmm…I don't think that that's politically correct." Emma racks her brain for information on the term. "But ummm, yeah, I met him. What does he have to do with Regina?" Not that she isn't familiar with Regina's whole thing about Wonderland. How Emma used to live there, how Regina was the White Queen and Emma was her Knight. They covered that nonsense and Emma is still having a hard time with it so she blocks it out these days. Regina gets all teary-eyed and talks about soul-mates and…stuff that is just too much for Emma most of the time. In fact, in many ways, Emma is reverting back to the non-believer she once was. Pre-curse. Pre-Henry. There is a rut in Emma's mind, it now seems, and she is comfortable living in it. The rut of the non-faithful.

Lately, Regina has been speaking more about Wonderland. And one night, she talked about Oz for three hours while Emma tried to distract her with sex which didn't work because Oz apparently has (had?) an incredibly complex system of governance and it is somehow extremely important for Emma to understand.

"Oh, I get it." Emma tugs her leather jacket closed (the red, because it usually gets Regina in the mood as soon as Emma walks in the door) and shivers a little. She turns to look at her driver with a grin. He's wearing what appears to be eye-liner and that makes Emma grin harder. "You want Regina's information about Wonderland. You all do! Even Mary." Emma snickers and faces forward, slumping in her seat. "You're all just trying to one-up each other. Jesus…"

"Ms. Swan, it is about time that you grew up." Gold's voice is…well, sort of menacing. "Yes, we do need information. However, I have been instructed to leave it to Snow White."

"Ok, leave it to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." Emma snickers. "And then maybe that Maleficent psycho could get involved…"

Now Gold slams on the brakes. His eyes bulge as he turns toward Emma. "Has Regina talked about Maleficent?"

"Huh? No, I just know about her from Henry's book." Emma mutters. "Regina hasn't mentioned a thing about anything." Not true. Gold knows it. He smiles in this really smarmy way and leans over to open Emma's door.

"Have a lovely night, Ms. Swan." Are the last words Emma hears before the car guns away.

She is still a short walk from Regina's house, but decides to stroll leisurely. It's not a bad night. A bit damp, as usual.

Within seconds, Emma sees a shadowy figure emerge from Regina's front yard. As the figure comes closer, Emma realizes that it is Regina herself.

Regina walks quickly down the street, despite the strictness of her sentence. Emma wonders if she'll have to remind Regina about the whole 'not leaving her yard' thing…

Regina is frantic with worry by the time Emma jogs quickly up to her.

"Oof!" Emma laughs as Regina's arms circle her neck. "What's up?"

Regina pulls back and searches Emma's face for…something, who knows what. Emma allows herself to be inspected before grasping Regina's hands in her own.

"What is it?" Emma asks, pressing her lips to Regina's knuckles.

"Gold, was he with you? What did he do?" Regina speaks rapidly as they walk back to the house.

"Nothing, he just gave me a ride. Hey, how did you know?" Emma's face shows dawning realization which leads Regina to look almost sheepish. "Your magic." Emma gasps. "You saw us. How? In what? A mirror?" Emma grows that last word because it brings up old anger—Sidney and all of his manipulations on Regina's behalf.

"No, no mirror." Regina waves her hand. "A dream. Old magic. Nothing you have to worry about. I was napping and I travelled…I ended up hearing some of your conversation. Why does he want to know about Wonderland?"

"Well…" Now Emma's mind is really blown but she realizes more and more that she is going to have to start wrapping her head around this stuff because life with these people is just not getting any saner. "If you were there, you know that I have as much of an inkling as you do." She lets Regina peel off her jacket and turns to look at the former Mayor's outfit which is, as usual, smoking hot.

They are in the living room by now and Emma decides, with a smirk, that she'll bend Regina over the couch.

But Regina is having none of that. She sits Emma down and walks to the kitchen, returning with a bottle of wine and two glasses. It is nearly 11pm but they are going to have to talk, Regina explains.

"It's time you started taking a few things more seriously." Regina states. She leans and kisses Emma's forehead and then settles beside her. The gesture reminds Emma of Gold's wording—grow up. Time to grow up. Well, fuck that. What the hell is everybody even worried about…

Regina is staring at Emma now. "Where did you go?" Regina asks.

"Nowhere." Emma grimaces and scoots lower on the couch. "Nothing. Just, tell me what you think I need to know. I promise to listen…" She feels her anger soothed by Regina's cool fingers rubbing lightly across her forehead.

They end up talking until the early hours of the morning which means that they get to sleep in. Emma doesn't get sex out of the deal, but she does convince Regina to shower with her which is lovely. Emma washes Regina's hair and teases her about the half dozen silver strands she finds.

"We'll have to go to Wonderland, at some point." Regina says, more than once. Emma hums her agreement, though she really isn't sure. They'll also have to go to Oz, apparently, to pick up some grains of magical sand. It all sounds bloody ridiculous to Emma—still.

"There are ways to bring magic into this world." Regina reminds Emma over breakfast. She looks frustrated. "Did you hear a word I said…"

"Yes, yes, I did." Emma tries to smile, but creeping fear has taken root in her belly and she just can't. "I'll go wherever you want me to." She promises, stabbing her fruit with a fork and shoveling it in. Regina seems appeased but it isn't enough for Emma. Emma reaches out and clasps Regina's hand. "I'll go wherever you go."

Regina looks misty eyed as she nods.

Mary arrives at 3pm with Henry. She and Regina exchange oddly pleasant greetings as Mary hands Regina a bag with Henry's homework for the evening.

"He has some biology and botany lessons to review, which are really your strong suit," Mary says. Regina nods, looking weepy again which inspires Emma to retreat. She can hear them from the kitchen. They talk about the weather for at least ten minutes which freaks Emma out completely.

"Won't you stay for dinner?" Regina asks.

Emma and Henry exchange surprised looks at Mary's enthusiastic acceptance.

**Storybrooke Futures.**

**Woods Edge.**

Emma is running faster than she ever has. The sword she carries clanks hard against her hipbone but there isn't time to remove it.

The spreading cloud of poison is heavier than the air but still moves rapidly.

Emma can see Regina, Henry, Mary and David screaming in the distance. David breaks into a sprint, tries to meet her halfway.

When he does reach her, Emma has developed a stitch in her side, so she is grateful for his arm around her waist.

"I'm not losing you now." David shouts. "Run faster!"

They fly over the dust and rocks and burnt grass beneath a sun hotter than Emma remembers it ever being.

Emma slams into Mary who grabs her before they can fall. Mary's eyes freeze on Emma's before Regina is yanking on the sword.

"Hold this!" Regina shouts, throwing the silver weapon into Emma's outstretched hand.

Emma moves as if in slow motion. Regina stands beside her and slams a black staff into the ground. The ground shakes.

Emma's hand moves as if it has it's own mind, and the sword tip hits the ground as well. Now the staff and the sword make a giant X. The poison is upon them when Regina mutters a series of strange words which seem to put horrific images in Emma's mind. Images like: a skinned person, laughing and buckets of blood falling all around her…

…the words aren't really coming from Regina, but Regina's eyes are glowing red like dripping blood.

"What is it?" Emma screams. "What the fuck is happening?" Her hand grips Regina's elbow, digs in, tries to rouse Regina from what seems to be a trance.

Regina shakes her head. "I don't know. Just…Help me!" She nods to Emma's sword, pleading with her eyes, and then glances back at Henry. Their attention strays to the child they've shared…

Emma nods, her eyes steely on Regina's.

Sword and staff cross and an enormous orb of purple and pink emerge…

…more powerful than it could have been, Maleficent will explain later, if the two women had not focused their energy on their love for their child as well as their love for one another.


	16. Chapter 16

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**A Mind of Gold.**

A series of murders and robberies around the outer limits of Storybrooke brings Emma right to Gold's house. He lives deep in the woods and often wanders around acting crazy to keep up appearances. But Emma knows that his mind is well enough—most of the time—to plan a little chaos here and there.

As always, he is avoiding the actual topic at hand. Emma taps her boot impatiently on the wooden floor. Her eyes stray to the woodstove, then nearby to a larger fireplace.

"Tell me Ms. Swan," Gold shifts as he speaks, crossing his legs and leaning back against the heavy material he uses to block most of the light.

Emma rolls her eyes, crosses her arms and settles in for whatever trickery he has up his sleeve.

"Were you and Regina getting along, when her little plan began to unravel?" Gold asks.

Emma's smirk falters. "Ummm, I guess. We were. Well, sort of. Better than before." Before…what? She is uncertain.

Gold examines his nails that seem to shine almost silver in the moonlight that bleeds through the gap between the window and top of the curtains. He speaks slowly, without his usual high pitched mockery. "You may have missed something, Ms. Swan." His eyes bore into hers. "Something in the details of your time with Regina."

Emma leaves shortly after and racks her brain for whatever it is she is supposed to remember.

**Storybrooke:**

**Valentines Hangovers.**

Emma runs into a hung-over Mary when she tries to sneak back into the apartment.

"Emma, are you just getting in now?" Mary rubs her temples and squints in the sun that pours into the room.

"Ummm, no, I already left for work." Emma lies quickly. "I forgot something. Be right back." She takes the stairs two at a time and, pretends she's returning to pick something up rather than just arriving. Spending the night with the Mayor had its perks, so Emma only had to throw extra clothes in a bag and sling it over her shoulder before leaving again. Three hours of sleep and a rushed exit to work was a small price to pay for the best sex of her life, Emma decides.

Emma is distracted at work. Henry calls, saying that Regina has officially relaxed her stance on their visits, but Emma—for once—waits for permission before seeing the kid.

Permission comes at 2pm, when Regina calls to 'chat'.

Regina's public persona is closed and cold and cloistered. In private, and even on the phone, she is anything but any of these things. Or, at least this is what Emma thinks when she listens to Regina's play-by-play description of the previous night's events.

In exchange for some heated phone conversation, Emma is allowed to see Henry after school.

Much later, when things have fallen apart completely for Regina, Emma will stretch her memory back to this phone conversation. Because this was a moment that would change how their lives moved forward. Even though Emma and Regina would have to cool things down from time to time, the energy of coming together was going to change everything.

Emma brings Henry for ice cream—twice in one week! She drops him off at his house for dinner. She does not stay and Regina does not invite her anyway. But Emma does return, sometime around midnight, a bit tipsy after a nightcap at Granny's.

She and Regina end up making out in the backyard, an empty bottle of wine next to them. The smell of nearby hanging white flowers perfumes Regina's body from that point on in Emma's mind. Emma lays beside Regina and watches her hand, paler than Regina's skin, as it trails over Regina's belly and hips. Emma tells Regina that she is beautiful and kisses her neck again and again.

In the morning, they are less romantic. Emma splays naked on the bed. She says "give me what I need", as Regina returns from the shower, glistening and warm. Regina rubs cream everywhere, sees Emma lick her lips and then returns to bed and gracefully straddles Emma's face. "Breakfast." Emma smirks crassly. Regina rolls her eyes and tips her hips toward her lover's mouth.

The next day, Regina wants lunch. She instructs Emma to drive to the town's edge, and then touches herself while Emma drives and glances over, squirming and groaning, Regina totally laughing at her. They park deep in the woods and Emma tries not to make obvious jokes about taking Regina in the 'bush' or Regina's 'bush' or anything that stupid.

Emma sighs with relief as she dips her fingers beneath Regina's panties and find slickness and warmth. Emma could already smell Regina and she feels herself moving closer to orgasm somehow, without even a touch. Regina's hands lace through her hair, lips latching onto Emma's neck. It is as though the act of touching Regina is enough to ease Emma's arousal, to drive it onto a constant low throbbing that she'd allow to go on forever…

"Hey, what's that?"

Regina glances over her left shoulder, still clinging to Emma's neck.

Four blue orbs float beyond the town sign. Even Regina, who seems to know everything about the town, looks disturbed.

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**Return to Oz.**

Regina finds the doorway without the Hatter's help this time.

"Two go in and only two can come out again." Regina tells Emma, again and again. "And when we go in, we have to be quick about closing the door behind us. We'll mark our path with these," She holds out three silver laser pointers. "The technologies of this world are not easily understood in other worlds."

"Uh huh." Emma is sweating beneath her heavy white shirt. Regina has insisted that she wear a strange layering of clothes, including a leather vest and leather pants. And thank goodness they have the same shoe size, because Regina has also insisted on mimicking Emma's outfit right down to their knee-high boots. "Do you want me to bring the Lightsabers?" She looks around and adds, "Where's Chewie…"

Regina rolls her eyes and clamps her mouth shut. Her jaw muscles bulge. Emma doesn't remind her that grinding her teeth is bad for her oral health. She knows Regina's limits.

The doorway isn't just any doorway. From the moment they step through it, Emma feels nauseous. There are lights all around them. It reminds her of the time she took mushrooms and wandered around a shopping mall.

They don't arrive in Oz so much as they stumble upon it. There are rocks and strange neon green flowers growing at the door. Regina helps Emma to step over the flowers, explaining quietly that they are really just little bells to signal their arrival to whomever wants to leave in their place.

"And plenty of Oz's residents do want to leave," Regina adds in a whisper.

A Fairy Queen in Oz has turned to some sort of trickery, Emma has already been told. Something from the world they just came out of has poisoned other realms, including Oz and its neighboring lands.

Emma is too sick to argue. She doubles over but Regina clamps a hand over her mouth.

"Nothing of you is to stay here." Regina hisses. "I'm sorry, but…try…"

Emma nods and breathes through her nose. The world rights itself and she is able to calm her stomach.

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**The Curse Unwinds and Another Begins.**

Beyond the poisonous gas, Regina sees an approaching sand storm. "What have you done?" She shouts at Gold who stands at the edge of it.

Gold screams, "you know how it is dear, in one world there are sandstorms, in another…" He thinks it over and spins on his feet to look at them, "nuclear war, perhaps? No, too obvious!" His hands wave and he giggles maniacally in between statements.

Regina yells "Why?"

Gold stops giggling and sighs. "I don't _know_ Your Majesty. If I _knew_ what I did, or why I did it, perhaps I might not do it."

Emma steps forward. "Well, what _did_ you do?"

Gold smiles at her. "I told a very bad story, I did dearie. A very bad story indeed."

The wind picks up and whips Emma's hair in her face. Regina steps closer, protectively shielding Emma from the sand. An orb of some kind sprays from Regina's hands and Emma can see small pieces of sand ping against the circle.

Gold is intent on bothering them for reasons beyond even his own comprehension.

"Do you know how many lives you've both had together, already?" He speaks conversationally, sitting cross legged beside them. "You're quite the philanderer Ms. Swan." He giggles. "Always stepping out on our Mayor with whoever catches your fancy. Or, at least, you've been that way…" He counts on his fingers, "Oh, I'd say, six out of ten times…"

Emma grimaces and begins to feel sick in addition to scared. Her eyes sting with tears and she can see from the corner of her view that Regina's eyes are shining as well.

Gold's hands extend and float inches from Emma's face, so suddenly that Regina cannot react. She is distracted by the task of protecting them from the sand and the wind and whatever else Gold has conjured with his terrible visions.

"Remember, White Knight. Remember it all." Gold mutters from somewhere behind Emma it seems. His voice is surrounding her. "My Curse, to you…"

Emma falls to her knees as flashes of her life roar through her mind.

She and Regina, in a castle, Emma slowly dying, Regina weeping…

Regina screaming at Emma about something in front of Granny's, something about not coming home the night before…

Emma in front of a man who is putting a ring on her hand while Regina watches…

Emma and Regina in the woods, camping it looks like…

Emma, Regina and Henry, all running…

Regina throwing a vase at Emma who is crawling out her bedroom window…

And Henry, being born, with Regina in the room…

"But that can't be right?" Emma screams the question. "Regina wasn't there! No one was there! They left me alone for hours to give birth to him!"

The wind is harder now, all around them, and it tears up the land and seems to bring the sky closer to their heads.

"Emma!" Regina shouts at her. "It's ok! He's tricked us into coming here! We're in a fold between realities. I'm going to get us out…" Her words trail into a series of muttered incantations.

Emma screams and screams and screams, her head splitting with a terrible sharp pain.

She does not wake up for six days.

When Emma does wake up, all that is left of the world are Regina, Snow White, James Charming, and Emma herself, all in a desert of nothingness.

Henry is missing and Rumpelstiltskin is nowhere to be found.


	17. Chapter 17

**Storybrooke Futures.**

**Running Sideways.**

_Regina is running again. She skids in the dirt and leaves and veers sharply to the right, through a narrower path. _

_The whole town is looking for her, but a hoard of nuns are actually running after her. Nuns. Fairies. What the fuck ever. Same thing in this life. Either way, they are fast. The fastest nuns on the planet, Regina decides, laughing to herself. _

"_Hey! Regina!"_

_Emma's voice. Sounding casual, friendly almost. Regina blinks. She can't see Emma, but how far could the woman be if Regina can hear her so clearly?_

_Regina looks around. The woods smell as though sunshine has bleached its floor and dried out every branch. Regina has sudden images of forest fires. Will somebody think about this as well? Will they use fire to draw her out?_

_But then there is Emma, practically tiptoeing in Regina's direction. Emma pauses, almost says something, but shakes her head. _

"_Where are you going to go?" Emma whispers._

_Regina shakes her head. "What?" She asks._

"_Where are you going to go?" Emma whispers the question a second time. Then she whispers it again. Then she just whispers Regina's name over and over again._

Regina wakes up in a bed in a cabin in the woods that surround Storybrooke. Beside her, Emma stares intently and says her name.

"What were you dreaming?" Emma asks, stroking Regina's hip atop the sheet that covers them both. "You were kicking me."

Regina rolls her eyes at Emma's smirking accusation. "Fairies." Regina responds. "No matter which realm I travel to, the fairies won't leave me alone."

"You stole from them, Gina." Emma yawns and stretches. Regina has been in hiding since the Curse ended and Emma brings all of her supplies. It is the best and most fucked up relationship Emma has ever been in. She doesn't care though, she just wants to sleep and forget the whole Curse and the whole stupid savior thing.

Regina slides back into bed and asks Emma, "What have you been doing with your time?" They don't always see each other every day. Sometimes, Regina worries. About what, she isn't always sure. Sometimes she imagines Emma fucking other people. More often, Regina imagines Emma taking control of the town that once belonged to Regina. Regina knows that she is hated while Emma is revered.

"Not much." Emma bites the tip of her tongue and considers raising the subject of Henry's latest problems at school. Mary is continuing to run the school, to maintain a sense of 'normalcy' for the children of the town.

"What is it?" Regina narrows her eyes and slides away from Emma slightly.

Emma frowns. "Hey. It's not a big deal. Henry just…"

"Henry just…" Regina takes a deep breath and wills herself to be patient and not to scream.

Emma's eyes grow wide, watching Regina struggle with her anger. She decides to blurt it out. "Henry thinks that since his mother is the White Knight, and his other mother is a magical Queen….errm…Witch? Then he can just quit school and become a Wizard. He's also using his newfound notoriety to convince the other kids that he's already magic and already powerful and that they should carry his things to school for him, and do other random favors…"

Regina's mouth opens then closes, then opens again. She clears her throat.

Emma smirks. "You're proud of him, huh. Admit it."

They burst into rare laughter together, but Regina halts suddenly and says,

"No magic until he's 18. Besides, I don't know how magic works in Storybrooke. It's unpredictable. And it's sources…now that the Curse is broken, I'm certain that there are going to be new sources of magic. For now, Henry is to stay shielded from all of it. Tell him to do his homework."

Emma rolls her eyes and slumps back on the bed. "I'm making him do his homework," she growls.

It takes Emma an hour to snap out of her funk after that. Regina gets up and throws on one of Emma's long tank tops so that she can at least cover up a little while she makes lunch. Emma, on the other hand, storms around the cabin fully naked. She even pretends to clean up, for the sake of avoiding shouting.

"Speak." Regina says, turning on Emma at last. "What is it."

"It's just…come on, you should know." Emma mutters. "I mean, you're so…just…you're so…I mean…I feel…" She flings a rag over the top of the fireplace. The rag comes back black with soot, or whatever, so she throws it into the fire.

"How do you feel?" Regina's question freezes them both. She leans over and slides a tray into the wood oven. It is growing hot in the small space, with two sources of fire and not much need for either. Before Regina can focus her attention on Emma, she feels something odd and tingling in her fingertips. It reminds her, momentarily, of how it used to feel to control fire with her hands.

Emma takes a deep breath. She walks to the small kitchen area and sits sedately down on a wooden chair. "Well," Emma begins. Her eyes glaze over. It becomes suddenly apparent that not only does Regina not know how she feels—about anything, really—but that this whole 'feelings' conversation might actually be worth it, even if the whole thing does give Emma a panic attack. Besides, she feels stupid sitting all naked and vulnerable. Emma crosses her knees and arms and hunches forward.

"You feel…" Regina pads over to the chair and touches her fingertips to Emma's chin. Awkward or not, she also slides down so that she can nudge Emma's knees apart again and take up residence on her lap.

"uhhhhhh…" Emma buzzes against Regina's chest. "this isn't, I mean I'm not used to…" But the combination of Regina's fingers in her hair and heartbeat against her cheek, makes Emma relax just long enough to slide her arms around Regina's waist and consider—maybe—continuing the conversation. So Emma blurts out the rest. About how Regina makes her feel incompetent and how she wants to feel like a good mom, and how she admires and resents Regina's abilities in that area, but also how she disagrees with many of Regina's methods (like barking at the kid to do his homework when he looks like somebody has already killed his puppy or something) and how maybe Emma knows a few things that Regina doesn't and how maybe…

"We could help each other." Emma finishes. Her arms are in a vice grip around Regina's waist and Regina is tenser than anything. "You know, to figure this all out."

"What's to figure out?" Regina's voice is cold and eerily calm. "You have Henry now. What more do you want?"

Emma pulls away and their eyes meet. Emma realizes, all at once, that she had not really settled this question of who Henry 'belonged to' because in her mind, he belonged to no one. Regina still didn't get that. So Emma tries to explain and nearly makes it before Regina's anxieties get the best of her and she leans forward and ignores the rest of Emma's ranting about 'villages raising children' and how 'children choose their parents, even the ones who are supposed Evil Queens'.

"Were you raised by wolves?" Regina hisses, turning around on Emma's lap. Emma still will not loosen her grip so Regina can barely move.

"Oh just shut up." Emma sighs and decides to fix it the best way she knows how.

Half an hour later, Regina is spread wide on Emma's thighs and Emma's fingers are inside of her three at a time, but it isn't happening. All the anger and worry isn't leaving their bodies. If anything, it is escalating. Regina growls and swats Emma's hand away before turning and straddling her hips and kissing already bruised lips.

"Why doesn't this work any longer?" Regina hisses then runs her tongue along Emma's lower lip.

"Maybe we don't hate each other anymore." Emma gasps, pulling Regina's hips closer. Emma swats Regina's ass playfully and adds, "Maybe we're just meant to enjoy each other. Cuz I know I'm enjoying this." Emma looks down at where she can feel Regina pressed against her.

"We have not fixed our problems." Regina replies shortly. She lets her hips be pulled and squeezed and pushed away. "Unnngh…" She moans and gasps as Emma keeps staring at her and moving her.

"You like being watched." Emma says plainly. She smiles but it isn't at all mocking or teasing, just affectionate. "It's lovely watching you. So we both win." Then she reaches up with both hands, tangles them in Regina's hair—but laces them beneath Regina's arms so that she is actually lifting as she stands—and lifts Regina onto the small table where they sometimes eat actual food.

Regina braces herself by winding her arms around Emma's shoulders and raises her knees to her chest. Her heels thrum against Emma's back, but Regina doesn't want to start pleading for those hands, not just yet. She presses herself against Emma's belly and says, "One more thing before I start begging and generally making a fool of myself." Regina gasps.

"Yes? Anything." Emma murmurs against Regina's breasts. "Anything. You're so lovely." Her hips are almost helplessly rotating now. Something about expressing her feelings has opened some kind of floodgate. Emma can't stop telling Regina how beautiful, how wonderful, how warm and perfect she is.

"We have to share. I mean in terms of decision making…parenting…" Regina lifts her knees higher and slides her hands over Emma's ass. "Equals." Regina blurts out. "I mean we have to try."

"That's sexy." Emma decides after pausing for just a second. "Equals. Equality with you. Sexy." Her lips fasten to Regina's neck and she nips and licks at a sensitive spot, drawing gasping laughter from Regina.

"You're absurd." Regina's words are underlined with such joy that when she nudges against Emma's cheek, she is rewarded with her lips and her tongue and deep and sensuous kissing. They are kissing, without any crazy growling or biting, and Regina realizes that she has never been kissed like this, like she could sink deeper and deeper into Emma. Somehow it is enough to push Regina over the edge. It surprises them both, because usually, Regina needs a few fingers and a lot of vigorous effort before she clenches and comes. But Regina comes so easily as though Emma's tongue on her teeth and perfect lips sliding all over hers might be enough to tug something deep within Regina until all parts of her are connected in one long and deep and glowing streak of energy. Regina feels herself twitch and pulse against Emma. She rocks her hips and keeps crying out against Emma's lips and she spreads her knees further until Emma fits against her thighs and begins to thrust in rhythm with Regina.

"Oh." Emma pulls back, surprised, and their eyes lock as Regina's orgasm draws the same from Emma. Regina clasps Emma's ass in her hands and grinds her down harder.

They rest, breathing heavily, and stare incredulously at one another.

"Well?" Emma gasps.

"More." Regina smiles breathlessly. "More of that."

Emma's loud burst of laughter is barely muffled as she nuzzles Regina's neck.

It is still dark when Emma leaves the cabin. Regina sends her off with a kiss before dressing herself for the day. It is early, but Regina refuses to let herself sleep the morning away. There are things to do—chores—even if she has to invent them herself.

When a knock sounds on the door, Regina is strangely certain that it isn't Emma. She wishes it were, when the door swings open. Regina stands with her back to her visitor and scans the room, trying to keep her tone casual while she searches for a weapon.

"Hello Rumpelstiltskin." Regina says quietly. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" She hears boots thumping inside and the door swinging shut again.

"I have a plan. And I would like you to play along." Rumpelstiltskin is still wearing a suit from Gold's collection, but his skin has begun to take on a silver sheen.

Regina waits. He always gets to the fucking point if she just waits. She is surprised to hear the words, humble and quiet, that come from his mouth next:

"I am tired of this life." He says.

Regina turns and stares.

He just shrugs sadly but his eyes are afire.

Regina spots the bottle between them, glowing suddenly. "A memory spell." She says. "What will this accomplish?"

"Trust me…" Rumpelstiltskin laughs. "If you do this, and let go of your memories, it will all work out for me as well. Cause and effect, dearie. Besides, you owe me a favor."

Regina doesn't know why she trusts him, but she reaches for the bottle out of some sixth sense. Perhaps she just doesn't want to face an empty day, reaching in front of her without any purpose. For whatever reason, she downs the potion.

Rumpelstiltskin keeps talking. He tells her that she won't have that stroke now, won't fall into any deep sleeps. That he has essentially wiped all of the damage in her mind clean, all of the lies, all of the tangled and ugly deceits. She'll still have to answer for her past actions, but her mind will be free. He'll do terrible things, there will be no preventing them, but he'll need her to help fix the mess he is about to make.

"Rest for now, dearie." He whispers in her ear as she lays on the floor, staring sightlessly at the ceiling. His gaze is strangely fond as he remembers Regina Mills as a little girl, free from her mother's curses. "All that was wrong will be right again. Right as rain…"

Many weeks later, Regina is found living in an elaborate tree house. She is rescued by Henry and Emma, and walks home with them. Back to Storybrooke which, in the end, will be the only real home she has ever known.


	18. Chapter 18

**Storybrooke Futures.**

**Stuck in Time.**

One year into her house arrest, Regina uses an underground tunnel in her basement to get to the cemetery. She visits her vault of hearts and tries to figure out what the hell she should do with them all.

Emma is suspicious. She knows that Regina is hiding something. Regina tells Emma only some of her secrets, just not about the hearts. Not yet.

Emma comes over and digs and learns about plant life and magic. Regina tries to teach Emma to throw fire, but Emma gets angry.

"You're sitting here, hiding out, learning to use magic again." Emma states the obvious.

"What else do you expect me to do with my time?" Regina asks. They bicker a lot longer before Regina throws her shovel at Emma and storms away.

Emma mutters, "We have to stop doing this. All this fighting." She stands at safe distance. Regina turns on her, a pleading look in her eyes. "Don't you remember? How good it was, when we forgave each other?"

Regina nods and says, "Don't go. Stay for dinner." It is the closest she can come to saying that she is sorry.

They fall into bed like it will fix things between them. Regina pulls Emma on top of her but feels too detached from her own body to actually take control of the situation.

"No, no, not like this." Emma slows down her movements, stills her hips and lets her hand rest, shaking, on Regina's chest. Regina's hair is spread over the pillow, dark and wavy and silken against the back of Emma's hand which strays upward from Regina's chest. "Hey." Emma grins. "You dyed it." There is no longer any silver, just a scattering of dark reddish strands.

Regina huffs and tries to deny it but Emma leans and kisses away the small lie. Soon Regina is smiling against Emma's mouth.

The age difference between them is an unspoken anomaly. If they were to discuss the 28 years on top of the 20-something years before, then they would have to talk about everything that went with those years. Emma would rather focus on the fact that Regina is not technically that much older than herself.

Besides her obvious rationalizations, Emma knows that Regina's magic includes some kind of age or time defying spell. Spells? Who knows. So long as Regina isn't bathing in the blood of maidens…which…Emma is fairly certain that this rumor is part of at least one version of the 'Evil Queen's backstory.

Emma flips onto her back and lays close by. She suddenly realizes that Regina hasn't told her things. Who knows how many things. Probably a lot…

"Emma? Why do you always leave?" Regina whispers, smoothing hair over Emma's ear.

"That's what I do." Emma answers.

"Well." Regina's hand cup's Emma's cheek. Her thumb traces cheekbone then lips. "If you must. Just always come back as well."

The next morning, Snow drops by. She and Regina talk about Henry and then they talk about the Mayor's office, and then, somehow, they talk about Snow's father.

Emma sits with them in the backyard, and sips coffee while they discuss the royal line and how Snow's father fit into it all and what exactly is left for Regina to do, if anything.

Snow mentions something about the age that Regina was when she married, and then Emma's mouth hits the ground. "He…what? Wait. How old was _he_?" Emma asks.

Regina pales and glares at her lover.

"No, but…" Emma stares at Snow. And stares. And stares. And dawning realization creates growing horror. "How…I mean…Regina had you even…"

"Enough." Regina hisses and turns on her heel. She glares at Snow over one shoulder who returns the look with a sad expression.

Emma calls after her, "But…Regina…."

"I need a minute!" Regina shouts from inside the house.

Emma and Snow stand speechless, lost in their own thoughts.

**Storybrooke Futures.**

**Return from Oz:**

One day, not long before the world ends, Emma catches Regina wandering around, out of the mansion.

Regina is in the graveyard, supposedly visiting her father's tomb.

The problem is that Regina isn't really visiting the tomb.

Instead, Emma finds Regina standing outside a series of boxes.

Even as Emma asks, "what's in the boxes…" she knows the truth. "Graham…" Emma whispers. "You kept his heart here and then crushed it…"

"We've been over that one, haven't we?" Regina asks politely.

Emma shakes her head numbly. "You should be at home. You're under house arrest. Remember?" All of a sudden, Emma's own heart sounds very loudly in her ears. She wonders about all those times when Regina tried to end her. To chase her out of town. Had they really come so far since those days?

The world goes grey in front of Emma's eyes. Emma flings herself against the wall when the woman who she has been fucking for the better part of two years, reaches to stop Emma from falling.

"Fuck you." Emma says hoarsely. Her tongue feels thick.

Regina's shoulders slump. She stares at the box in her hand.

"I never want to see you again." Emma's voice floats away from her. She turns on her heels to walk away.

"Wait. I still need your help." Regina mutters, more to the box than Emma since Emma has finally, officially, come to her senses. Regina has been waiting for this day, without admitting it to herself.

"What?" Emma turns and shouts.

Regina stares blankly at Emma. "I have something to do. Before Rumpelstiltskin ends us. You know he will."

Regina looks lost, standing there in a pair of tattered jeans and a thin blue t-shirt with the word 'Duke' fading upon it. Emma had once stolen the shirt from a boyfriend. The boyfriend had lasted only two months but the shirt had held up to years of abuse. Something in Emma's chest clenches painfully at the sight of Regina in her old clothes. Emma's mouth waters at the thought, even now, of throwing Regina against the cold stone wall and having her angry fucking way with…

Regina clears her throat and interrupts Emma's raging thoughts.

"Whose heart is that?" Emma asks, breaking the silence at last.

"A fairy's human husband—he's been in Oz far longer than a person of this world should be. If he is to live out the rest of his life with any sort of happiness, he'll need this back. If I give him this, then one of the Witches might give me the magical item I require to save…us…" Regina replies blandly, but her voice catches at the end. She clears her throat again and continues. "I took it in order to subdue the Witches of Oz. This particular man was going to bring peace to Oz. I needed war." Regina pauses and sighs. "Sorry." She adds with a shrug. "Sorry. I'm just sorry."

Emma agrees to go with Regina to Oz, to return the heart, but only because it seems like the right thing to do. She finally leaves the cemetery and storms back to Snow White's place.

That night, Snow hears Emma crying and tries to talk to her. Snow ends up holding onto her sobbing daughter for most of the night.

Snow does try to articulate any kind of opinion. About how Regina has changed and what the measure of that change against the balance of her awful deeds might be…

Snow is surprisingly relieved when she wakes in the morning to find that Emma has snuck out.

Regina for her part, is beyond surprised when Emma slides into her bed at 4am.

They sleep far apart and in the morning, Emma is grumpy and silent.

"Make-up sex is out of the question, I take it?" Regina asks, walking around their bedroom in her underwear, laying out the clothes they'll have to wear to Oz. There is a particular plant she worries about—one that might reveal her true age, should she touch it—so Regina chooses long, thick clothing. As she paces about, Regina doesn't wear anything on top and tries to pretend that Emma isn't completely staring at her breasts with a disconcerting level of anger.

Emma lounges on the bed—their bed, she now knows for sure—in the jeans and tank top she fell asleep in. Her feet are bare and restlessly brush over the sheets. She does not answer Regina.

"Well." Regina pauses at the foot of the bed and slips out of her underwear. "I think this is a new level of intimacy for us both. You are angry and yet you haven't actually left. Well, you tried…" She rambles as she walks to where her robe hangs on the back of her door. "…but you returned." She adds before walking to the bathroom.

Emma enters soon after Regina starts the shower and sits heavily on the floor, her back against an enormous mirror Emma had installed.

Regina soaps her hair and rinses it, her eyes scrunched closed. When she opens them she sees Emma's angry glare, challenging her. Regina drums her fingers against her chest and tries to interpret the silence.

"Shall I put on a show, dear?" Regina asks. She turns so that only her back can be seen and Emma frowns even harder. "Shall I prostrate myself to you? Beg for forgiveness?" Regina turns again and runs her hands everywhere, watching as Emma's eyes flare at her.

Finally, Emma sighs and closes her eyes. "No." She mutters. "You don't have to beg. Or put on a show."

Regina is mildly disappointed but tries not to show it as Emma leaves the room.

By the time Regina goes downstairs, Emma has made berry salad, eggs, toast, and coffee.

Still, their conversation about the whole heart thing isn't over.

"What about yours?" Emma asks plainly.

Regina chokes on her coffee. "My what? My _heart_?" she points to her own chest and mimics the beating of the muscle. "Right where I left it." Regina says.

"Oh?" Emma's eyes narrow suspiciously.

"My mother took it, once." Regina admits. There is something so surreal about their conversation. So calm. Regina decides to admit it all. "She took it. She was an abusive psychotic…horrid woman…" Regina pauses and struggles to catch her breath, suddenly panicking. Her hands shake so she presses them to the kitchen table. "So…"

"So?" Emma asks.

"You should wear that skirt I found for you." Regina interrupts.

"Regina…" Emma sighs and shakes her head. "so…what were you going to say?"

Regina blurts out, "So I killed her. And took back my heart."

They stare at one another for a long time.

Emma goes back to eating and Regina does as well.

While Regina is doing dishes and cleaning up, Emma sits at the table.

Finally, Emma gets up and wraps both arms around Regina from behind.

"Make-up sex will have to wait until we're back from Oz." Regina quips.

Emma nods and hides her tears against Regina's shoulder.

"I'm sorr…" Regina starts to say again but Emma mashes her hand against Regina's mouth.

"I'll wear that damned skirt when we get back." Emma says, between something that sounds like sobbing. "but if you ever lie to me again…"

"I won't." Regina's words are muffled but Emma can hear them still.

Their trip to Oz is stupidly bizarre, to say the least. They take a passageway beneath the town and speak first to Snow and James about the trip. James insists that they follow, and stay outside the door.

Emma can hardly believe it when Regina's incantations create an enormous wind that takes them beyond a glowing green door.

Emma trips over everything and spends half of her time in disbelief that they are even there.

They walk through bizarre landscapes and sleep beneath gigantic mushrooms and trees that arch over them like wings. The night sky glows in pinks and blues and greens and Emma can't help but stare at the changing colors even though Regina insists that they rest from time to time.

They are attacked within fifty yards of their destination. Regina argues with a floating pink fairy who throws a jagged piece of stone at her. Emma throws the box in Regina's arms and the fairy catches it and curses them both before attacking with a million more jagged stones.

"The sand, we need it!" Regina screams as they flee. "Please! It isn't for me!"

Emma realizes, all at once, that they have been standing on a faint dusting of sand overtop the cobblestone they could see clearly. She scoops up the sand as they run and behind them there is a shriek and a roar.

Regina is hit in the head by something and nearly flies away from Emma who catches her just in time.

It takes less time to reach the door than it had taken to walk to the castle, which strikes Emma as strange, until Regina mumbles something over her shoulder where Emma has her slung…

"What?" Emma screams against Regina's thigh.

"You…wish the door…wished the door…" Regina mutters, her face hitting Emma's lower back hard enough to break her nose. Emma can't help it, she just keeps running as Regina blacks out.

Emma is screaming Snow White's name, over and over. She can hear Snow's voice, shouting back at her, asking where she is.

And then the thousand or so Fairies that have already knocked Regina unconscious, and threatened to keep Emma in Oz forever, are descending from the sky.

Emma's terrified screams change. Soon she is yelling 'Mom!' over and over again. Regina is so cold, so heavy, like dead weight, and Emma is suddenly certain that Regina has died and left her all alone in this stupid, stupid world. This stupid fucking goddamned loveless fucking world…

Emma is sobbing and shaking when she hears her name again. This time, it is quieter and she wonders if she has also died. The fairies are still just hovering over her as though unsure if she should live or die or just stay in Oz having a nervous breakdown until she dies of natural causes…

"Mom!" Emma screams. "Mommy! Mommy!" She can't stop crying and rocking. Her words degenerate into nothing but screaming. Suddenly, all of Emma's childhood rushes before her eyes. She sees every foster home, every broken placement, every abuser, every bully, every late night when she had to shove a chair against the door to keep someone out, and she just wants her mother…

"Emma. The door." This time, the voice in Emma's head belongs to Regina. "Darling. The door. You're right here. Can't you see it?" Regina is twisting away from Emma's hands and struggles to brush away the foliage that cover their exit.

"Huh?" Emma says. "Gina?"

"Don't huh me. Get going." Regina whispers. "These fucking fairies hate me. All fucking fairies hate me. What did I ever do to them?"

Emma replies with a loud guffaw and then cups Regina's face in her hands.

Then she sees it. Through the green and purple leaves that have grown everywhere, like a carpet like walls, trying to entrap the women, there is a door. Emma has no idea how she'll get through the leaves. They have little teeth, and her boots are already gnawed and scratched. Emma is certainly grateful for the outfit Regina chose. Her arms are safe though her cheeks are wet with a light sheen of blood.

They fall through the door, somehow, even as Oz tries to eat Regina Mills and Emma Swan alive.

"Mom…" Emma hears herself whimper as Snow White wraps her arms around both women.


	19. Chapter 19

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**Between Worlds. **

_Regina dreams again and again, that Rumpelstiltskin is telling a story by the fire, of erasing everybody in this new world, so that he can find those he needs to find. Regina tries to tell him that his selfishness will destroy him the way hers did to her world. He shouts at her and laughs at her and dances around like a fool_

_Regina tries to change the dream. She thinks about Henry-imagines that they are a family, that he could actually love her, and that she could give him what he needs to soar in this life…_

_She thinks about Emma and in her dream they lie side by side, talking, laughing…_

_There are more dreams. Dreams of Regina and Maleficent throwing the magic sand that Regina has stowed away from Oz—throwing the sand to counteract some terrible magic Rumpelstiltskin has thrown. The two women sing an eerie song and green things begin to sprout. Regina has a flashback to Oz, but this greenery is Maleficent's magic and it resembles grassy knolls and rolling hills. Regina spares a glance at her old friend and sees Maleficent's eyes shine with tears. _

"_I'm going home Regina." Maleficent says, though the words echo only in Regina's head. _

"_You can't." Regina thinks, again and again, trying to will her friend and enemy to stay, to play awhile longer. But beside her, the woman is growing tall and green. Not like a dragon this time, but like an enormous tree. The tree marks a fold in reality. This is their way back to Storybrooke, and Regina is certain that Maleficent has actually visited her to show the way back._

_Regina wakes from this dream and turns to find Emma. Her hand finds Emma's jacket which serves as a pillow. They are sleeping on the ground in the middle of nowhere. _

Beside Emma is Henry, splayed on his back and beside him is James and Snow.

Regina wonders for a second if they are all dead. She hears Emma snore briefly and it is the loveliest sound and floods her chest with relief and joy. Then Emma is awake and blinking at her.

Snow wakes up also and stares at Regina. "Nothing has changed, has it…"

Regina shrugs, nods, looks around confusedly. "We're still stuck in between worlds. I have no idea how to get us out of here."

James is awake now and checks his watch. Ever since the Curse was broken, James has kept religious track of time.

"7am in the real world." James says wryly. "Here? Who knows."

"Where to next?" Emma asks. She is on her elbows now, staring at Regina expectantly.

Regina remembers her dream. She wants to find Maleficent. "We walk." Regina decides. "I think I know where to go now."

They walk for exactly one hour before finding the tree line and the fold between Storybrooke and their old land. Regina rests her hands on the tree and tells it that she is sorry. Everyone averts their eyes.

James dives in the fold first and shouts from the other side. Snow is next and then Emma. Their hands reach for Henry and Regina is left alone.

It is silent. Eerily so. Regina wonders if she should just stay—avoid the mess of Storybrooke. She glances to her right and the massive tree is suddenly closer.

Sparkling on its branches are the gold and silver dustings that Regina remembers first using with Maleficent. They once practiced old love spells and spells to return the dead to life, just long enough to undo something awful. Regina begins to cry as the sparkles fall all over her.

She is still crying when Emma's hands reach, panicked and searching, and pull Regina back into Storybrooke.

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**Return to Storybrooke.**

When James, Snow, Emma, Henry and Regina return to Storybrooke, they find out that they were all presumed dead.

"We thought that the poison beyond the dome had taken you." Granny explains, voice shaking as she shovels food onto their plates.

Red (who now happily goes by either of her names) refills their water glasses and gets coffee for Regina whose arm she keeps touching and whose gaze she lingers on. Emma notes this and raises an eyebrow at Red. Emma remembers again, the whole thing about parallel realities and how many lives they have all had together, and she knows, instantly, that she, Red and Regina used to be involved.

"Inappropriate you two…but whatever." Emma mutters to herself. When she realizes that she has spoken aloud, she tries to disguise the word with a cough. Regina's cheeks are pink as the two women bury themselves in their food. Granny and Red have, at the very least, forgiven Regina. Which is nice. Really nice. If Emma lets herself think about it too hard she'll get a bit weepy.

They go back to Regina's first, but end up having to spend the entire day cleaning.

"How long were we gone?" Regina whispers. There are cobwebs across the ceiling and thick dust everywhere.

"About six months," Granny replies. She and Red join the Charmings and Regina at the house for the day and bring all of the cleaning supplies. "Plus, well…there have been some incidents. This isn't just dust." She scowls at the cobwebs.

"What kinds of incidents?" Regina trails her finger along a web. "This isn't from a normal spider is it…I mean what the hell kind of gigantic creature did this?"

Granny and Red exchange concerned looks. Snow is the first to really register the problem.

"All of those things that were perfectly normal in our world, are now coming to this world…" Snow is now as pale as her name would entail.

Red tries to put on a happy smile. "Well, the good news is that we did defeat the giant spider."

"And the bad news?" Regina asks blandly. "Besides the fact that the magic from our old world will come to this one in bizarre forms previously unknown to us all?"

Red shrugs and nods. Then she talks really, really fast. "Well, yes. And…for starters, the followers of the Green Fairy have started a cult in the old town library, half a dozen of the former vampires who you, Regina, banished, have escaped and rumor has it that they are seeking converts…oh, and Granny and I have likely killed and converted two people, but we're not sure yet. It all happened last month and so…" Red trails off, utterly despondent. "Well, anyway, hopefully they weren't good guys."

Granny adds, just as rapidly, "And also the dragons have made their return, Archie made a pact with a demon to remain human after he temporarily transformed into his cricket self, and all of the royal families have started a blood feud. And everybody is using magic again." Her eyes widen, "I mean everybody." She looks at her granddaughter and they both shrug. "I think that that's all." Granny says.

Regina and Snow are the most thoughtful in reaction to the news.

"Absinthe we can handle." Snow says quietly. She frowns and for a moment, Emma realizes Snow White's true age. Then, the moment passes, and they are all young again.

"Snow, you'll lead the royals in a truce." Regina adds with an enigmatic smile. "As for the vampires, we may have our work cut out for us. And demons…" She looks overwhelmed and adds, "…also, don't underestimate the Green Fairy. She has tricks of her own up her sleeve."

Emma watches Snow's expression transform. There is sudden mistrust, just like before…

Snow says quietly, "You'll have to get more of your own magic back. The daily practices, not just the big spells. And your old coven…"

"I'll need a new coven, I sort of…killed most of my old coven…" Regina replies blandly. Emma's head snaps to stare at Regina. There is a shimmer of something in Regina's eyes—amusement, perhaps. Emma turns around and decides to ignore that strange, slight layer of insanity that she figures will always be a part of Regina.

"We have no choice." James says. "We're in this together. We'll take care of one another." He grins and swipes at a spider web with the back of his hand.

Emma stares at them all as though they might be crazy.

Henry gives a little cheer and rushes off to find cleaning supplies while the adults stare in dumbfounded silence at the webs around them.

Later that evening, Emma sits outside with Snow and with James and they talk and Emma decides to start calling them by their real first names. "I can't do much better than that." Emma frowns. "I mean, for now. I mean…"

"I'll take it." Snow interrupts. Her eyes are damp as she takes Emma's left hand while James slings an arm around them both.

"One more thing." Emma whispers gruffly. She shifts beneath James arm. Emma decides to just blurt it out, because really, she can't do much better than this either.

"I love her." Emma says. Louder this time.

"Well. Yes. Obviously." James takes the lead, after Snow shoots him a confused look. "You've been with her for years now. We had assumed that there was something pretty intense between you two if you had managed to work through all of your differences." He looks momentarily confused but shakes it off.

"Right. Well. She's an intense woman, that Regina is…" Emma sighs and relaxes, closing her eyes.

Later that day, Emma overhears Regina and Henry talking about their living arrangements.

"Are you happy?" Henry asks Regina, his voice eerily echoing through the doorway to his old room.

Emma doesn't hear the answer, but when she opens the door to announce her presence, Henry and Regina are hugging. It's just a little bit awkward, as though Regina isn't used to being allowed the luxury of this amount of affection. Emma backs slowly out of the room and closes the door.

**Storybrooke Futures:**

**The Final Countdown. **

Regina urges Emma onto her stomach and begins to rub her back. Then she rubs lower and squeezes Emma's buttocks. Then she spreads them…

Emma yelps. "I don't do that." Emma says, craning her neck around. Regina's hands continue to knead her backside.

"Are you sure?" Regina's eyes are strangely lit, by the candles but also by what Emma can only interpret as arousal. Extreme arousal. "Do you trust me?" Regina asks sweetly.

"Huh? Uh…yeah. I think I do." Emma relaxes and faces forward again. "But um…."

"Trust me…" Regina orders this time.

"Oh. Ok." Emma bites the pillow at the first swipe of Regina's tongue against her lower back. When that tongue flits lower, Emma goes out of her mind.

Regina pulls away and says, with a wicked smile, "I have thoroughly debauched the daughter of Snow White."

Emma scowls and turns around. She glares at Regina.

Later, they lay side by side, trying to sleep despite a massive heat wave. Emma looks at Regina and grins at how disheveled the normally immaculate woman is. Regina is splayed on the bed, panting and grimacing.

"I want to stick my head in a refrigerator." Regina huffs.

Emma nods and grins and looks at the darkened ceiling and adds, "If we had electricity…"

The people of Storybrooke live in a bubble now. They are not sure if there is life beyond the dome that was created to protect them. Regina Mills and Maleficent's magic was strong enough to protect the townspeople, even when the townspeople wanted both Fairy and Evil Queen dead.

It's been years since Regina was the hated villain, the ex-Queen, the fake Mayor of this town and of the land before she enacted the Curse that brought them here.

As if one cue, Regina's phone rings…

…which shouldn't be strange.

Except that the phone lines no longer work either.

When Regina picks up, nothing but static greets her.

Emma stares in the darkness. "Who is that?" She asks slowly.

Regina has a feeling that now is the time to put all of this nonsense with Rumpelstiltskin to rest.


	20. Chapter 20: Conclusion

**Storybrooke Mayhem.**

Despite all that she has tried to do to redeem herself, Regina still has not earned the trust of very many. She may not still be under house arrest, may have saved the world even, but Regina doesn't bother leaving her home either way. Regina worries that attempts will be made on her life less than she worries about disdainful looks and poisoned words. It makes Regina feel lonelier than she thinks it should. After all, this has been the status quo for a very long time.

Regina thinks it ironic that the only people who now trust her used to be her sworn and absolute enemies. Even Snow White has forgiven the Evil Queen. Emma Swan, who Regina once tried to kill, trusts her most of all.

They say things like, 'you can't live in the past' or 'we have to let go of the past in order to make room for the future'. Mother and daughter have enough clichés between them to fill a self-help book.

Regina knows better. She knows, every morning when she reaches for her coffee in the silence of her kitchen, after Emma and the others have gone off to do their good deeds, that the past never really is past. The past is always just behind Regina, caressing her, threading itself around her. Regina walks with her past trailing behind in colorful waves. All others pretend that they cannot see the same of their own past deeds; others pretend that they can outrun the people they once were.

Regina hears Emma return from a day spent repairing shutters, fences and security systems throughout the town. She hears Emma discussing something with James and Snow who are staying at the house but who also spend most of their time away.

James says, "We trapped a Bolivian demi-god in lava and now we're trying to sort out what to do with her."

"Not Bolivian, love." Snow says, her voice going up and down in volume (Regina thinks that she must be rummaging through cupboards). "The demon, or god, or whatever she was, was Belgian. There is an enormous, incredible difference."

"How did it make its way here?" Emma asks, fatigue clearly evident in her voice.

James leaps in. "It sailed." James says. "Apparently a whole fleet of gods decided to come here for a visit. Regina says they might leave again, fairly soon. It isn't their island, after all."

Emma chuckles. "She's a smartass, that Regina. Asleep?" Regina feels a pleasant warmth blossom in her chest. Emma wants to see her. Emma did not find somebody else that day, nor did she find some excuse to stop loving Regina. Every day, Regina is absurdly grateful for these things. She is so grateful that it embarrasses her.

Snow chuckles. "She's waiting up for you. I heard the shower."

Regina rolls her eyes at that. She is still damp from what was a tepid stream of water. Her robe sticks to her skin and she cannot imagine allowing Emma to peal it away and begin her usual assertive seduction.

"Hey babe." And just like that, Emma has slipped into their room.

"Hello." Regina is surprised by her own formality. She smiles.

"Hmmm…" Emma climbs onto the bed and skims Regina's hip with her fingertips. "Have I done something? Why the cold reception?"

Regina shrugs, struggles not to grin like an idiot. Her insecurities often muddle with large parts of her day. When Emma comes home to her, the mess always clears.

"They're off to their room downstairs," Emma nods her head toward the door. She rolls on top of Regina and kisses her chin. "I thought about you today." Emma whispers. Another kiss follows, this time on the corner of Regina's mouth.

"What did you think about?" Regina asks, her tone inquisitive and polite.

Emma mutters against Regina's neck. "I thought about that time you bent me over in the shower…"

"Last week?" Regina squirms at the memory. "You went a little crazy for that." Regina thinks that Emma's ass is an absolute wonder and spent a long time communicating her perspective. She reaches down Emma's back and makes her worship obvious.

"I always go a little crazy for you." Emma reminds her, kissing the muscle of Regina's neck.

Emma's voice hums in Regina's ear and starts a resonance all through Regina's body. Emma lays out on the bed, atop Regina who shifts and sighs as the rough texture of Emma's jeans rub between her thighs.

Emma who used to throw Regina against walls and fuck her like they were getting paid by the hour to be somewhere else, tries very hard to make love to Regina now. Emma sits back on her heels and takes off her black work shirt. Her eyes stay glued to the span of skin between Regina's chin and the place where her robe hangs loosely together. Emma eases her fingers beneath the fabric and spreads it. She lowers her head and kisses exposed skin.

Regina begins to restlessly move her feet up and down on the bed. "I'm not sure I want…" She begins, but then Emma's mouth is warm and wet on her nipples, slowly moving between each one, and paying equal attention to both. Regina's eyelids flutter. Emma is kneading both of her breasts in sync and her tongue presses and circles deeper and deeper on each tip. Regina discovered long ago that she didn't like to have her nipples tweaked and pinched and rolled between fingers and teeth—not like Emma does. Regina longs for something deeper and Emma is happy to provide it. Regina's neck arches and Emma takes time away from her breasts to kiss her there again and again, finally leaving a mark when she sucks and bites.

Regina is breathing shakily when Emma parts the rest of her robe. Regina stretches and curves her back as Emma's tongue dips in her bellybutton and then lavishes attention on the grooves of her hip bones.

"Oh…oh…" Regina moans quietly. Their bedroom is far from everyone else's, but Regina still feels self conscious. "Oh… Emma please…please…"

"Please what?" Emma asks, reaching casually behind her own back to unclasp her bra. She leans back to look at Regina—naked and spread wide, heels digging into the bed already.

"Please…" Regina grits her teeth and wills her thighs to stop shaking. It still isn't easy, making herself this vulnerable to somebody. Regina tries. She tries her hardest, to just let go…

"Please…eat you? Lick you? Suck you off?" Emma mutters, grinning, her mouth hovering just over Regina's clit. Emma swears that Regina's sex twitches at her words.

"All of that. But gently." Regina whispers. "Eat me. Suck my…" she hesitates. "…ummm…pussy…"

Emma moans and Regina laces her fingers through long blond hair. Emma doesn't care that she is being directed, because at the first taste of Regina, she is close to coming herself. She licks her way lower, letting her tongue slide through the slick folds and smooth fullness of Regina's labia.

Regina spreads her thighs further, watches intently. She wants to raise her knees up but instead digs her ass into the bed. Regina imagines Emma turning around and says, "Touch yourself, or else turn around and let me eat you…"

Emma laughs, breathless, and pulls away to admire the results of her efforts. Regina is practically quivering, her clit is so hard against Emma's tongue and her thighs are wet. "I'm not doing that." Emma says, laughing again.

"You will and you are and give me what I want…" Regina kicks at the bed, petulant for just a second. Emma gets off the bed and slips out of her jeans. Then her panties are lost in the mix and she climbs back on the bed, socks and all. She turns around and Regina grabs at her hips and then just as she presses her face between Regina's thighs again, she feels a warm tongue and hot breath at her own entrance.

They do this for a long time, shifting energies back and forth, each woman focused first on the pleasure of the other and then on their own, in one confusing and messy and gorgeous synchronicity. Then Emma stops and turns, wanting Regina's mouth. They kiss and it is the messy and wet and their lips bruise a little.

Emma slides her hand down and plays with the trimmed hairs of Regina's sex. Then she buries her fingers in Regina and fucks her. Both of Regina's ankles go over Emma's shoulders. Emma can slap her hand slow or fast against Regina's clit like this, or corkscrew three fingers at once, or slide one finger in and out slowly, however she wants—Emma tries it all. Regina is delirious with want. Neither woman could come before, each one being too distracted by the other. Now, Emma is close and Regina is closer. It isn't long before Regina reaches between Emma's spread legs and strokes the length of her clit and Emma slams her hips against Regina's and they are both shaking and coming. Emma shouts something incoherent and grinds herself harder. She slips one more finger in and suddenly she is up to her knuckles with only her thumb to go.

They pause, both a little surprised, and stare at one another.

"I love you." Emma says, shaking and breathless. "I love you so much."

Regina reaches down and nods and her eyes well up. She pushes Emma's thumb against the rest of her hand and slips it inside of her. Emma looks terrified. Regina's hands grip Emma's shoulders and she whispers her love while Emma slowly moves her hand.

Regina can feel the faint drumming heartbeat in Emma's wrist. She watches the care and the wonderment that flashes over Emma's features when she leans down to look at what they're doing together.

Regina wails soundlessly when she comes. It burns and then there is coolness and a pulsating rhythm inside.

Later, when they fall asleep, they dream together. Images of fire and water churn together behind their eyes.

**Storybrooke Happy Endings.**

After Rumpelstiltskin figures out how to crank call everybody in town—without actual working phone lines—Regina and Emma drive to the town's edge to find him.

An eerie grey-blue cloud covers the ground and stretches to the sky. Regina suspects that James and Snow might be following her, but she can't yet be certain.

"What are we doing?" Emma says, but barely gets the words out before Regina storms outside.

Regina shouts. "Rumpelstiltskin, show yourself!" The sky is ominously purple, momentarily, and the sun is blotted out. When the light returns, Rumpelstiltskin sits on the hood of Regina's car.

It begins to rain, which makes Rumpelstiltskin smile.

Regina crosses her arms and looks him over. "Well?" She says briskly. "What now?"

The conversation that ensues is quick and to the point.

Rumpelstiltskin wants something, of course, in exchange for all of the favors they owe him.

"You owe me, dearies," He decides, rubbing his chin really rather more thoughtfully than usual. "You owe me for many, many bargains. I've upheld my end. Now its your turn. Both of you." He looks at the divide between Storybrooke and the rest of the world. "I'm tired of all of this. The curse I threw with the others…" He has never been clear about who these 'others' are and so pauses. It takes a full minute for him to continue. "…the curses we threw…killed my own son. I'm certain of that now." His face is suddenly human, for just a moment, but then it turns to ice again. What he adds next, Regina realizes she already guessed.

"Now give me Henry," Rumpelstiltskin growls, all semblance of the person he once was, now gone.

Emma and Regina both slump, as though the fight has finally dwindled. It is too much, all of this nonsense with this man—this creature—whatever he is.

"Why did you do it? Why did you help to destroy the world beyond Storybrooke?" Regina is oddly curious. Emma stares at her.

"For kicks. I told you." He replies. But his eyes do not meet Regina's.

Regina is quiet. Then she says, "It wasn't you, not entirely, you just said..."

Rumpelstiltskin shakes his head slowly. "There are more terrible things than just me in this land. Awful things; things I cannot even fathom myself. People who want to destroy everything. Even the moon. Even the sun. The land, yes, of course, they want to destroy this place—all places—as well. It's a culmination of terrible thoughts and terrifying magic. Total annihilation. No power for anybody, but in the meantime, all power to a scattered few." He pauses again. "Now give me Henry and perhaps I'll help you salvage what's left of the universe…"

Regina jumps into action then. She throws fire at him in an enormous, flaming tide that flows from her hands and her eyes. Rumpelstiltskin looks thoughtfully at the arc of flame and douses it with a wave of water taken from the air around them. "Interesting." He says, "We cancel one another out now, Regina."

"We're not giving you Henry." Regina shouts. "Absolutely not!"

Rumpelstiltskin pretends to be shocked. He laughs. "No?" He says. "No…what? No, you won't honor your bargains, or no, you don't want to live long enough to see the next sunset? What if I say please? Either way…" He stood higher and took from his back, a long dagger. "…you will do as I say, dear."

"Why? I mean really? What is it that you want?" Emma has moved closer to Regina and watches the dagger closely.

Rumpelstiltskin laughs and laughs and laughs and then stops and says,

"I want new start. A child. Henry will do. I want some purpose in this life besides mere destruction."

Emma has a small gun in an ankle holster, and she takes it out.

The gun goes off. Not once, but twice and then three times.

Regina runs to Emma, even as Rumpelstiltskin says his last words.

"Oh, well then…" The creature turns back into a man and he smiles as he dies.

Regina bursts into tears. Emma's face has already begun to change. Emma's eyes are yellow fire and she turns to Regina and asks,

"Regina? What…what am I? What's happening to me?"

Regina cries and shakes her head.

A car screeches behind them, stops in the dirt and idles as somebody gets out.

Snow White has run toward them and looks impossibly sad.

"I knew it. I knew you'd both be here." Snow fumes. She runs to her daughter and touches her arm. "Emma…Emma…My girl…"

Regina has already slumped to the ground, her shoulders shaking.

But Snow White just smiles.

Snow smiles and laughs and grabs Regina's shoulders and says,

"He did this on purpose, to the both of you!" Snow can't stop laughing, but her laughter is so joyous that Regina stops her crying instantly. "Everything, Regina, everything we've done has led to this! This very moment—so just kiss her! Because it had to be the two of you who would stop Rumpelstiltskin and he knew it better than anybody."

Regina realizes the truth of it—that every point of her struggle had been for some purpose. All of the people in this place were meant to help each other, in some way or another, even through the Curse. They were all meant to be together, in this place, at this time…

So Regina does what she knows is her only hope. She kisses Emma and pours every good thought, every good memory, every shred of love she has ever felt into that kiss. She feels the darkness grow, for just a moment, inside herself and then she feels it transform. She isn't pure, she isn't perfect, but with her lips pressed to Emma's, she is completely human.

Regina feels the terrible magic that once turned a good man into a destroyer coursing through Emma's body. The pulsating magic shatters inside of Regina. She knows then that only she and Emma could have been conduits for such strong and difficult energies.

Regina feels the dark magic leave through the crown of her head. She feels new magic enter her.


End file.
